Enterprising Ethiopia

Nurhussein Mohammed, 25

Mekele Bright Future & NVC 2012

"Because of my entrepreneurial training I am able to combine the civil engineering part that I am learning at the university and the business skills I have from Alchemy World; I can merge the two into one business project."

Enterprising Ethiopia with Alchemy World Addis Ababa & London facebook.com/enterprisingethiopia twitter.com/EntEthiopia

My name is Nurhussein Mohammed, I am 25 years old and completed the Bright Futures course with Alchemy World in 2012. I still have two workshops to finish in the New Venture Creation programme and I am looking forward to them.

At this time I am a fourth year student, finishing my first degree, BSc. in civil engineering at Mekele University.

For in the future I am planning to start a business that does recycling of solid waste. There is lots of solid waste in Mekele, but no one is utilizing it and recycling it. At the moment only the organic waste is recycled. The collecting from households and industries of waste should be optimized, and the waste should be sorted and utilized properly according to the category.

I want to recycle the bad-degradable waste, but the project should include all the processes from collecting the waste from the houses and industries to the transport, the sorting and the recycling according to waste category. The project should include road design in order to improve the environment for the citizens of Mekele.

When you are recycling solid materials you are extending the life span of the land site. And to maximize the life span of the land site the routes the trucks take should also be optimized. So this is both an economic project and en environmental project that will benefit the community.

It is, however a business that requires large investment – not something I can handle on my own.

There are already many small organisations who are working with the garbage, but they are simply collecting it and disposing it. There is no recycling. So I got the idea because there is a problem. And the problem has a solution. So when there is a problem and a solution, there is a potential business. This is one of the most important things I learned from Alchemy World: how to identify relevant and profitable business ideas.

But it is difficult to rise the financing. So I have to think in alternative ways: There is currently a gap market in the university: there are no student cafes and there is no one who can arrange food and drinks for meetings and other events inside the university campus. So I am planning to open such a business and here the needs for initial capital is quite small. And with such a business I can start raising the initial money and that will later give me access to more finances.

Many of the things I learned from Alchemy World can help me develop this idea and expose my potential. Because of my entrepreneurial training I am able to combine the civil engineering part that I am learning at the university and the business skills I have from Alchemy World; I can merge the two into one business project. And this is a business project that allows me to both help the community by employing people, by improving the environment and at the same time to make a living of my own by doing the things that interest me.

Nurhussein Mohammed, Tel. +251914165318, Email nurhussein6@gmail.com