On Tuesday 25th & Wednesday 26th June, 2019, Freetown City Council (FCC) registered waste service providers in Freetown. The process was a tremendous success with almost 300 waste service providers being registered
The registration itself happened in four simple steps. First, waste service providers identified the ward(s) they operate on a map of Freetown before providing their business information, including the name of the business, estimated number of customers, frequency of collection and method of collection. Next, service providers get their photos taken. Immediately after, service providers paid their registration fees via mobile money. Finally, they picked up their registration certificate, photos and vehicle sticker, all of which prove that they are Council-approved waste service providers.
Business information provided at the first stage fed into an online map of Freetown which shows in real time the number and type of operators in each ward. The map is color-coded according to the number of waste service providers. Wards with zero to ten service providers are in purple; wards with sixteen to twenty-five waste service providers are in green; and wards with more than twenty-five waste service providers are in yellow.
The waste providers registration was conducted as a prelude to the new system of sanitation FCC will introduce in the coming months. FCC now requires waste service providers are approved by Council and only those providers that have been through the registration process will be allowed to operate in Freetown. Registering with Council provides several other benefits for service providers. Amongst others, these benefits include Council sharing contact information of approved waste service providers with residents looking for waste service providers, use of FCC’s transfer stations (smaller dump sites in 6 wards) will be limited only to small approved waste service providers and all opportunities for waste service providers will be limited to approved waste service providers.
The registration provides FCC with vital information on the waste management sector in Freetown. For instance, the data has shown that over 80% of approved waste service providers operate either a tricycles or push carts or omolankays. The data also shows that a significant number of waste service providers are community groups. The data will inform FCC’s decision on which wards it should facilitate the establishment of waste management micro-enterprises, as part of the EU-funded project Council is implementing. The list of waste providers in each ward will be available on findmeinfreetown.com by 7th July 2019.
Thank you to all partner organizations that supported the waste registration days in diverse ways, particularly the European Union, The Scouts Association, Orange and Africell.