Tapera Industries the Zambian company that converts used vegetable oil into fuel that powers cars and machinery
After completing his schooling in the UK in aeronautical engineering, Mutoba Ngoma came across a program about renewable energy in Brazil. This gave him the idea to use that knowledge to start a company. In 2006, he went back to Zambia and founded Tapera Industries, a biofuel company that converts used vegetable oil into fuel.
His vision was to increase the country’s fuel supply sustainability and provide vocational training and stable job opportunities. At first it was very much a backyard business with around 200 liters a month cleaned and processed. Today the company processes 3,000 liters each month and generates about $15,000.
After facing challenges of securing enough raw material for the diesel Ngoma decided to diversify the product range by also producing soap from the same oil.
In 2014, the company started producing jatropha curcas seeds from small scale farmers in order to process into biofuels. They have since set up a small scale farmers out grower scheme in Eastern province of Zambia where they intend to setup up a fully fledged farm to fuel biodiesel production with a monthly capacity of 70,000 litres per month and over 200 Metric tons of biomass briquettes (environmentally friendly coal replacement). To date, Tapera has signed up over 1500 small scale farmers on its out grower program.
The company’s vision is to be the leading producer of biodiesel fuel in the Southern Africa region.
