Meet Sulley Amin Abubakar.
View this post on Instagram
Amin until his sudden crush on coconut was a promising lawyer who quit school in his third year.
Not that he was cash-strapped, he had the money but had other plans for it. Amin invested in a business no one thought was viable; producing and selling charcoal. Now that’s a certified daredevil by all standards.
In a recent interview with famed Ghanaian YouTuber, the village boy himself — Wode Maya, Amin talks about his business from the ground up. He said it all began on his usual commute to class one day when he noticed there were coconut sellers on every junction on the Osu Oxford Street. “Where does the waste go to from here?” he wondered.
Here’s the shocker. Accra’s beaches, the repository of filth found enough room for coconut waste in the capital. They are dumped there with the intuition that they would gradually be carried away by the waves.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B2lBOnihW2T/
So one day he notices his favourite kenkey seller is using coconut husks to make fire instead of the usual wood. That is when his curiosity went wild.
A clueless Amin finds himself in the northern part of Ghana to understudy pro charcoal producers.
View this post on Instagram
With the know-how acquired, Amin starts burning charcoal from a tomato paste can to twelve barrels. Brand ‘Zaacoal’ was ready to go commercial.
After pitching to almost every investor he met, they looked at him like…
The vision became a reality when the Zaacoal factory was built. With a labour force of twelve workers and high-tech machinery, the factory produces three tonnes of charcoal every single day.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5N9nPLJwMP/
Zaacoal is a stainless, eco-friendly charcoal made from coconut husks.