Ghana is one of three partner countries in the Circular Electronics Initiative (CEI), a Swiss-funded programme (2025–2029) building on the legacy of the SRI programme and implemented with the Mountain Research Institute and the Ghana National Cleaner Production Centre.
The Circular Economy Initiative (CEI) in Ghana builds on ten years of progress under the SRI Programme (2014–2023), which put in place Ghana’s first e-waste laws, the National E-Waste Fund, and initial technical guidelines. With this legal groundwork done, CEI Ghana now focuses on putting policy into practice: strengthening enforcement, collection, and treatment, and covering new types of waste.
By coordinating action on policy, standards, collection, and monitoring, CEI Ghana aims to turn its strong legal framework into a system that actually works day-to-day — one that is enforced and driven by real data. This means building institutional capacity, turning the E-Waste Fund into a working financing mechanism, and setting up digital monitoring tools. The goal is lasting change within national systems, with environmental, economic, and social benefits, including formalizing the informal sector and building up the workforce.
Organized around four outcome areas (Policy, Standards, Collection & Treatment, and Monitoring), Ghana’s work will focus on expanding and building on what SRI already achieved.
Developing national e-waste policies, EPR-based legislation and empowering public institutions.
Defining environmental and social standards, conformity assessment schemes and independent auditing and enforcement.
Strengthening collection systems, treatment, hazardous fraction solutions, and progressive formalization.
Building robust statistics on products and e-waste flows to measure progress and support EPR financing.
Ghana will keep strengthening its legal framework for e-waste policy, including Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) rules and specific guidelines for solar panels, batteries, plastics, and lamps, supported by trained government staff.
Building on this, the country will establish a working, enforceable compliance system covering solar panels, batteries, plastics, lamps, and screens. This includes tested technical guidelines written into national law, inspection procedures tried out at real facilities, and a trained, gender-balanced group of national auditors running enforcement pilots in several regions.
A nationally coordinated collection and treatment system will also continue scaling up, covering solar panels, hazardous plastics, batteries, and mercury lamps. This relies on trained workers (formal and informal), certified recycling facilities meeting Basel Convention standards, and stronger industry groups, including a national recyclers association and an expanded GARSDA network linking recyclers, government, and the E-Waste Fund.
To tie these efforts together, Ghana will build a fully digital monitoring system that tracks e-waste from import to final treatment, including solar panels and lithium-ion batteries. This will run on a solid national baseline, standardized data collection (using UNU/HS codes), and better data-sharing between Customs, GSA, local authorities (MMDAs), and the E-Waste Fund Secretariat.
