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Michael Tome Business Reporter
FINTECH group, Cassava Smartech Zimbabwe Limited yesterday launched Clean City, an innovative sustainable waste management company in urban areas.

Clean City is a digital platform used by private waste collection companies to collect rubbish bins from homes and is an addition to the already existent Vaya services including VAYA premium car Service, Vaya Shuttle, and Vaya Ambulance.

It uses a franchise business model that provides digital platform that links companies that collect waste with private truck owners and customers and the pilot service will start in 32 urban councils around the country.

The service will have a support back bone of Econet’s services like, Vaya, EcoCash has potential to create 5 000 jobs.

Speaking on the launch Clean City CEO Mr Lovemore Nyatsine said, “We are excited to be officially unveiling Clean City today, with the goal of providing scalable and sustainable waste management solutions to cities in Zimbabwe, starting with the capital Harare.”

He added that the idea of using the “Uber type” Vaya App for urban waste collection was probably a first in the world, adding that Clean City would use the App to connect and seamlessly link different parties in the garbage collection and waste disposal cycle.

“We will use the Vaya App – which has already proved to be a game changer in mobility and logistics services in the country – to seamlessly connect a network of privately owned garbage collectors to help with waste management in the city,” he said.

Clean city services will also encompass smart and sustainable waste collection, recycling service, cleaning service, landfill gas energy recovery and clean water service. Birthed by desire to decrease waste and water borne diseases.

In his address at the event, the Permanent Secretary for Environment and Tourism Mr Munodawafa lauded the Econet group and Cassava for launching Clean City.

“We applaud you for bringing innovation and technology to help deal with the real problem of garbage pollution and uncleanliness in our cities, which has in the past contributed to fatal disease outbreaks,” he said.

According to Practical Action Southern Africa more than 2.5 million tonnes of household and industrial waste are produced per annum in urban areas across Zimbabwe.

The clean city business model comes as critical intervention on part of urban councils which have been battling to contain the problem of waste management due to lack of adequate capacity.

The Clean city business model will also empower local entrepreneurs as the service has a franchise platform where individuals can avail their vehicles in waste collection with the waste going to recycling depots, built around the country.

The event was attended by, Clean City waste disposal partners, Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe (UCAZ) representatives, the Environmental Management Agency (EMA)