The Prime Minister of Guinea, Amadou Oury Bah, has described a new waste management partnership between the Ghanaian Jospong Group of Companies (JGC), through its environmental services subsidiary, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, and the Guinean government as a continuation of the historic ties between the two countries.
“The relationship between Ghana and Guinea has been historic, dating back to the days of independence. Our two countries have been friends since then, and this partnership is a continuation of that brotherhood,” he said.
The Prime Minister made the remarks when JGC leadership, led by its Executive Chairman, Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, paid a courtesy call on him on Tuesday, November 3, following the signing of a landmark public-private partnership agreement with the Government of Guinea.
The agreement aims to establish an integrated, modern municipal waste management system for Conakry, shifting the city from an unsustainable waste disposal model towards a circular sanitation economy focused on waste recovery, recycling and resource utilisation.
Operating locally through Zoomlion Guinea Integrated Waste Solutions Limited (ZGIWSL), the company will work closely with the Ministry of Sanitation, Hydraulics and Hydrocarbons (MAHH) and the National Agency for Sanitation and Public Health (ANASP).
Its responsibilities will include managing and operating key Zone de Tri et de Transit (ZTT) transfer stations, organising waste collection in major public markets and overseeing the transportation of waste to the Baritodé landfill and future resource-recovery facilities.
Minister outlines sanitation challenges
Earlier, Guinea’s Minister of Sanitation, Hydraulics and Hydrocarbons, Aboubacar Camara, said the signing of the agreement marked a major turning point for the country’s sanitation sector.
He said the partnership aligned with the vision of President Mamadi Doumbouya and the priorities set by the Prime Minister.
For years, he explained, waste collected from Conakry and surrounding areas, including Manéah, had been transported and dumped back in the city.
“We cleaned the city, but afterwards we would gather these piles of trash again in the middle of the city. And that is what motivated the President of the Republic to ask us to close Dar-es-Salam in the first place,” he said.
Mr Camara said the next phase, coordinated by the Prime Minister, was to find lasting solutions to the country’s waste management challenges.
He noted that Guinea had worked with Jospong for years and described the group as an experienced operator in waste management, recovery and transformation, with operations in 29 countries.
Following initial due diligence, Guinean teams travelled to Ghana several times to study the company’s operations. Negotiations intensified about a month ago, and after a three-day visit, the parties finalised the contracts binding the Ministry and the communes of Conakry.
“Today, we can announce that the question of sanitation at the level of Conakry is meeting a major turning point in a decisive stage, namely the modernisation, the transformation, but also the industrialisation of our waste,” he said.
Mr Camara said Guinea had struggled for about 30 years to find a lasting solution to its waste management problems.
“And I think that this time, we are on the right track. And it is thanks to the vision of a man but also the coordination and accompaniment of the Prime Minister,” he added.
Project expected to create up to 3,000 jobs
The Minister thanked Dr Agyepong for his willingness to commit funds towards the early establishment of a waste processing and recovery plant.
He said the facility was expected to create between 2,000 and 3,000 jobs and improve the public perception of sanitation work.
He noted that many young people currently working in the sector were foreigners, while society’s perception of the profession remained poor.
“With professionalisation and the valuing of this profession, it will allow many young people who are currently unemployed to say: ‘Thank God, at last we will participate in the construction of our lives and of our country,’” he said.
Mr Camara linked the project to the Simandou 2040 programme initiated by President Doumbouya, saying its vision included making the capital clean.
“If we have companies capable of providing solutions, but also employing young Guineans, I think that is an opportunity that we must seize, and we will seize it,” he said.
He stressed that the project’s success would depend not only on equipment and technical capacity but also on active community participation.
He said ZGIWSL would work with municipal authorities and the Office of the Prime Minister to roll out public education and environmental awareness campaigns involving schools, local communes, traditional leaders and youth organisations.
Jospong touts African solution for African cities
Dr Agyepong conveyed fraternal greetings from the President of Ghana and commended President Doumbouya for his vision and commitment to transforming Guinea’s development landscape.
He called on African countries to move beyond traditional financing and operational arrangements that, in his view, had failed to provide sustainable solutions to urban sanitation challenges.
“For over 30 years in Africa, governments have depended almost exclusively on World Bank and IMF frameworks to solve urban sanitation problems, which has repeatedly proven unsustainable over time,” he said.
“What we are bringing to Guinea is a self-sustaining, circular industrial model built on localised African capacity. We are proud to buy into President Doumbouya’s Simandou 2040 vision, turning urban environmental challenges into drivers of economic growth, public safety and job creation.”
Dr Agyepong said the group operated in 29 countries, had an asset base exceeding $2.4 billion and employed approximately 10,000 people globally. He also cited a research and technical pool of more than 200 PhD holders specialising in waste engineering and related fields.
He assured the Guinean authorities that the machinery and equipment to be deployed in Conakry would be purpose-built to meet local operational requirements rather than consist of standard imports.
He described the approach as “exactement à nos propres besoins” (“exactly tailored to our own needs”).
He also cited the group’s experience in Ghana and its reported $180 million infrastructure investments in Lagos State, Nigeria, as evidence of its capacity to deliver large-scale environmental infrastructure projects across Africa.
Dar-es-Salam landfill tragedy underscores urgency
The weaknesses in Conakry’s existing waste management system were exposed in August 2025 when torrential rainfall triggered the collapse of the main Dar-es-Salam landfill at Gbessia, claiming at least 30 lives.
The subsequent closure of the landfill forced municipal authorities to redirect collected waste to distant disposal sites outside the city centre. This placed additional pressure on transportation and transfer infrastructure and reinforced the need for a comprehensive overhaul of the city’s waste management system.
Partnership aligns with Simandou 2040
The agreement is aligned with Simandou 2040, Guinea’s 15-year national socio-economic development framework championed by President Doumbouya.
Built around five strategic pillars, the programme prioritises sustainable development, infrastructure modernisation and social inclusion. It recognises the need to support the country’s natural resources with functional, clean and climate-resilient urban infrastructure.
Its water and sanitation objectives include expanding sanitation coverage, modernising waste collection systems and improving living conditions across the country’s communes.
Partnership targets economic value in waste
The partnership comes at a critical time for Conakry, one of West Africa’s rapidly expanding capitals. Located on a narrow coastal peninsula along the Atlantic Ocean, the city’s population growth has significantly outpaced the development of its municipal sanitation infrastructure.
A key component of the agreement is the recovery of economic value from the city’s waste.
Waste characterisation studies indicate that household waste comprises approximately 46 per cent organic matter, 18 per cent plastics, seven per cent metals, six per cent glass, and six per cent paper and cardboard.
Under ZGIWSL’s circular approach, these materials will be separated and recovered for productive use instead of being sent directly to landfills. The process is expected to create opportunities for local industries while reducing the volume of waste requiring final disposal.
Organic waste will be processed into compost for Guinean farmers, with the aim of improving soil fertility, supporting agricultural productivity and contributing to food security and agribusiness ambitions under Simandou 2040.
Recovered plastics, paper, glass and metals will serve as raw materials for domestic recycling facilities and manufacturing enterprises, creating green jobs and expanding opportunities for local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within the sanitation value chain.
Beyond daily waste collection, transportation and processing, the partnership is also expected to address longstanding environmental problems associated with abandoned and poorly managed dumpsites.
Drawing on Zoomlion’s experience in rehabilitating degraded sites and converting them into productive public spaces and recreational facilities, the initiative could pave the way for the ecological restoration of former disposal sites, including the Gbessia landfill.
With administrative arrangements, land allocation and legal frameworks being advanced under the supervision of the Prime Minister and the MAHH, the establishment of ZGIWSL represents a significant step towards restructuring Conakry’s sanitation system.
The city generates more than 2,500 tonnes of municipal solid waste daily but has historically collected only about 44 to 55 per cent of it.
This has contributed to the accumulation of refuse in communities and markets, blocked drainage systems, coastal plastic pollution and open-air burning, with serious public health and environmental consequences.
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