From Scrap to Opportunity: How 2021 TEF Alumni Avith Philip Is Transforming Tanzania’s Circular Economy

What makes this growth story remarkable is not just its commercial success, but its impact on environmental sustainability, community empowerment, and industrial development.

Avith Philip Solving a Challenge Hidden in Plain Sight

Across Tanzania, large volumes of scrap metal are generated every year, yet much of the sector remains informal and fragmented. Limited traceability, inconsistent market access, and concerns around illegally sourced materials have historically created barriers for both vendors and manufacturers.

Recognising this gap, Avith founded Country Materials with a vision to build a more transparent, efficient, and inclusive scrap metal ecosystem.

Rather than viewing scrap as waste, the company treats it as a valuable resource that can be recovered, recycled, and returned to productive use, reducing pressure on virgin raw materials while supporting local manufacturing.

Leveraging Technology for Inclusion

At the heart of Country Materials’ innovation is SkrepaChap, an AI-enabled platform that digitises the scrap metal value chain.

The platform helps vendors register, verify their identity, access buyers, and participate more effectively in the recycling economy. For manufacturers, it improves traceability and confidence in the origin of materials, helping create a more transparent marketplace.

By formalising transactions and connecting previously underserved participants to market opportunities, the platform is helping thousands of informal workers build more sustainable livelihoods.

Empowering Communities Through Enterprise

The impact of Country Materials extends beyond recycling.

Today, the company has onboarded more than 5,000 scrap vendors, created over 2,000 indirect jobs, and built a network supporting more than 14,000 young people through economic opportunities across the value chain.

By combining technology, market access, logistics support, and financial inclusion, Country Materials is enabling entrepreneurs and workers who were once excluded from formal systems to participate more fully in Tanzania’s growing economy.

This model demonstrates how entrepreneurship can create shared value, generating economic opportunity not only for a business, but for entire communities.

Driving Environmental Sustainability

Country Materials is also contributing to a more sustainable future.

As a circular economy business, the company promotes the recovery, reuse, and recycling of materials that might otherwise end up as waste. By increasing the availability of recycled scrap metal for industry, Country Materials helps support resource efficiency while strengthening domestic supply chains.

Its work highlights an important reality: environmental sustainability and economic growth do not have to compete. Through innovation, they can reinforce one another.

A Global Recognition, Rooted in Local Impact

The company’s success has earned international recognition. In 2026, Avith was named among the Africa’s Business Heroes Top 100 Entrepreneurs, selected as a Top 10 Semi-Finalist in the Milken-Motsepe Prize in Circular Economy, and joined the Stanford Seed Transformation Program Class of 2026.

Yet for Avith, the most significant achievement remains the impact being created on the ground in Tanzania.

From Tony Elumelu Foundation Seed Capital to Sustainable Impact

When the Tony Elumelu Foundation invested US$5,000 in seed capital, alongside business training and mentorship, Country Materials had yet to be established as a limited company.

Five years later, it stands as a powerful example of what is possible when entrepreneurs are given the opportunity to build.

From formalising Tanzania’s scrap metal industry to creating jobs, advancing environmental sustainability, and empowering thousands of vendors, Avith Philip’s journey embodies the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s belief that investing in entrepreneurs creates lasting transformation for communities, industries, and economies across Africa.