Princess Kofa - OCEANS Waste Management

Name: Princess Kofa

Business name: Organization for Clean Environment and Neighborhood Services (OCEANS Waste Management)

Princess Kofa came to LEAD as part of a joint project between the Monrovia City Corporation and the International Labour Organization which brought in LEAD to provide business training and to service the loans for waste management companies being set up in Monrovia. OCEANS was provided with some equipment to clear backlogged waste in the MACOBENE Community and was then challenged to become a for-profit business. OCEANS currently serves over 500 residential households.

Kofa joined the mentoring program in January, 2010. She was the first client to be approved for LEAD’s largest loan product, which she hopes to use for the purchase of a pickup truck to more easily move trash to the garbage transfer station.

Service area: Mamba Point, Coconut Plantation, Benson Street and Newport Street (MACOBENE Community), Monrovia

Number of employees: 21

Established: 2007

Startup capital: $600 USD

Opportunity for growth: Further expanding OCEANS’ residential customer base as well as doing more business and government contractual work such as street and lot sweeping, drain cleaning, and regular collection of waste from deposit sites like the yellow drums around town.

What do you want out of your mentoring relationship? “Oh, I’ve even appreciate it a whole lot so far. I want to learn how to establish a larger customer base and how to build up the willingness to pay for the services. Also financial management, how to properly keep my records. I would like to get experience from outside Liberia to learn about how they go about waste management elsewhere.”

Contact: +231 (0) 6401165

keepclean2007@yahoo.com