Ororo Waste Secures Up to $1 Million to Expand Nigeria’s Used Cooking Oil Network

Nigerian waste-management company Ororo Waste Management has secured a commitment of up to $1 million, approximately ₦1.4 billion, from women-led investment network Rising Tide Africa to expand the collection of used cooking oil across Nigeria.
The funding is expected to help Ororo build new collection infrastructure, purchase more used cooking oil from suppliers and provide the working capital needed to pay collectors as the company scales.
The investment is structured as a corporate note rather than a conventional equity investment.
Ororo received the first tranche on September 16, while additional funding could be released through December 16.
The deal gives the company fresh capital as it tries to build a much larger commercial market around something millions of households and businesses ordinarily treat as waste: used frying and cooking oil.
From kitchen waste to a commercial product
Used cooking oil can create serious environmental problems when disposed of incorrectly.
When poured into drains, it can contribute to blockages, damaged drainage systems and local flooding.
Repeatedly reheating and reusing degraded cooking oil can also create food-safety concerns.
But once properly collected and processed, the same oil can become a valuable industrial raw material.
Used cooking oil is increasingly used as a feedstock in the production of biodiesel and sustainable aviation fuel, creating international demand for suppliers that can collect the waste in large quantities and prove where it came from.
That is the market Ororo is trying to serve.
The Lagos-based company specialises in collecting, handling and recycling used cooking oil from restaurants, food-processing companies, commercial kitchens and other sources.
It also works with households and informal collectors.
Nigeria has a large amount of unused supply
Figures cited in the investment announcement estimate that Nigeria generates about 840,000 metric tonnes of used cooking oil every year.
More than 95% of that potential supply is estimated to remain outside organised collection systems.
That creates a large opportunity, but having the oil available is only one part of the problem.
It must also be collected safely, stored properly, documented and transported in a way that meets the requirements of international buyers.
Those requirements are especially important when the oil is being sold into regulated renewable-fuel markets.
Ororo holds International Sustainability and Carbon Certification, or ISCC EU, certification, which helps demonstrate traceability and compliance for materials entering certain renewable-energy supply chains.
The company's challenge is therefore not simply finding used oil.
It is building the infrastructure necessary to collect enough certified oil consistently.
More than 40 collection hubs planned
Ororo currently operates collection hubs in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt.
With the new investment, it plans to increase that network to more than 40 hubs across Nigeria over the next five years.
The expansion will require storage facilities, collection drums, transportation equipment and enough working capital to purchase oil from suppliers when it becomes available.
Ororo also plans to dramatically increase the number of people earning money through its collection network.
The company currently has about 5,000 formally paid collectors.
By 2031, it wants that figure to exceed 200,000 people.
If achieved, that would transform what is still largely an informal waste activity into a much bigger commercial collection network.
Market women and waste pickers are central to the plan
A major part of the expansion is focused on people who already handle waste at community level.
Market women, waste pickers and young people are expected to play an important role in sourcing used oil from households, food businesses and markets.
Rising Tide Africa says women should account for at least half of newly established market-level collection points, with that share potentially reaching 75%.
The investment network describes the approach as gender-lens investing — putting money into a commercially viable business while deliberately expanding economic opportunities for women.
For many informal collectors, the opportunity could create an additional source of income from a product that was previously discarded.
Lagos has already begun building collection points
Ororo has been working with the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency, LASEPA, and Shell Foundation on used cooking oil collection in Lagos.
Earlier in 2026, the partners launched household collection kiosks where residents can bring used oil rather than pouring it away.
The Lagos programme is designed to reward people for turning in their oil while also creating opportunities for micro-entrepreneurs involved in collection.
LASEPA has said used cooking oil can contribute to blocked drainage systems, water pollution and other environmental problems when it is disposed of improperly.
The agency estimates that Lagos alone could potentially support a used-oil and biofuel market worth at least $20 million.
250 people trained in July
The expansion has also included training.
In July, Ororo, LASEPA, Shell Foundation and the Waste Pickers Association of Nigeria trained approximately 250 market women, waste pickers and young people in Lagos.
Participants were taught how to collect, handle and store used oil safely.
Training also covered quality control, traceability and how collected oil can ultimately become raw material for biodiesel and sustainable aviation fuel.
The goal is to bring informal workers into a more organised supply chain where they can be paid for the material they collect.
Technology will track the oil
Traceability is particularly important because overseas buyers do not simply purchase any container of waste oil.
They need evidence showing where the material originated and how it moved through the supply chain.
Ororo says its system uses GPS and QR-code technology to track transactions from the point of collection through to export containers.
Payments to collectors can also be made digitally.
That creates a record of both the material and the transaction behind it.
For Ororo, this type of documentation is essential if the company wants to supply refiners in highly regulated international markets.
Targeting 150,000 tonnes a year
Under preliminary development targets agreed with Rising Tide Africa, Ororo wants to increase its annual certified used cooking oil collection to more than 150,000 metric tonnes by 2031.
That would represent roughly 18% of the estimated volume of used cooking oil generated in Nigeria each year.
The target is ambitious.
The company currently exports only a fraction of that amount, meaning it must significantly expand both its physical infrastructure and supplier network.
But international demand could provide an incentive.
Europe and other markets are increasing the use of lower-carbon transport fuels, creating stronger demand for properly certified waste-based feedstocks.
Sustainable aviation fuel is one particularly important market because airlines and governments are searching for ways to reduce the carbon intensity of aviation.
Used cooking oil can be processed into one of the feedstocks used in producing some forms of SAF.
A climate business with an employment angle
The Ororo investment sits at the intersection of several trends.
It is a waste-management business.
It is also part of the renewable-energy supply chain.
At the same time, the model could create income for thousands of informal workers.
For Rising Tide Africa, that combination is central to the investment.
The network was founded in 2016 and focuses heavily on increasing women's participation in investment and entrepreneurship.
It says it now has more than 120 members across several countries and has backed dozens of early-stage African businesses in sectors including fintech, health, agriculture, climate and essential services.
The Ororo transaction also gives the investment network greater exposure to climate and circular-economy businesses.
The difficult part is execution
The size of Nigeria's potential used cooking oil supply does not guarantee that Ororo will reach its targets.
Collecting waste from hundreds of thousands of individual suppliers across a country as large as Nigeria requires reliable transport, storage, technology and payment systems.
Quality also has to remain consistent.
Oil that becomes contaminated or cannot be properly traced may not qualify for some international renewable-fuel supply chains.
The company will therefore have to expand without weakening the certification and quality controls that make its product valuable to overseas buyers.
It will also need to prove that collectors can earn enough from the system for them to continue participating.
Ororo says it plans to track income, employment and gender outcomes as the programme grows.
Turning a disposal problem into an industry
The wider opportunity is relatively simple.
Nigeria already produces enormous amounts of used cooking oil.
Most of it currently has little formal commercial value because the infrastructure needed to collect and aggregate it remains limited.
If companies such as Ororo can build that infrastructure, waste produced by restaurants, markets and households could become part of an international renewable-energy supply chain.
That could reduce improper disposal locally while creating additional income for collectors.
The new investment from Rising Tide Africa will test whether that opportunity can work at significantly greater scale.
Ororo's plan is to move from three major hubs and around 5,000 collectors today to more than 40 hubs, over 200,000 formally paid collectors and 150,000 tonnes of certified oil collection annually by 2031.
If it succeeds, the company will have done more than expand a waste business.
It will have helped turn something routinely poured away in Nigerian kitchens into a measurable export commodity.