The urban mine
25,000 tonnes of e-waste a year in Senegal. Under 1% is collected in a documented, safe way. The rest exists, it is simply invisible. Scroll to take a laptop apart.
- Au Gold
- Cu Copper
- Pd Palladium
- Co Cobalt
- Li Lithium
What you just did
You just made a device visible.
Every layer you pulled apart is a tracked asset with a buyer. Reuse first, certified recovery for the rest.
A laptop is one example. The same record covers handsets, desktops, servers, network and medical equipment, screens and batteries: every device that enters the country.
The problem
A crisis that rises, every year.
25 000 t/yr
E-waste generated in Senegal (GEM 2024)
<1%
Collected in a documented, safe way
~20 bn FCFA
Metals buried or burned each year
17,000+ people live around the Mbeubeuss dump. Some 2,000 pickers work there unprotected, burning e-waste by hand.
The value already exists. Today it leaks untracked.
What is inside.
Four fractions carry most of the value. Each has a buyer.
The same fractions exist in a handset, a server or a medical monitor: only the proportions change.
The regulatory gap
You cannot enforce what nobody can see.
Law 2023-15 and its framework decree are in force. The scheme still cannot run: nobody knows what enters the country, what is in service, what reaches end of life. No data, no fee schedule, no accountability.
76%
of the world's e-waste is unaccounted for. Senegal is not an exception, it is the rule.
Reviva is the missing layer.
The core product
Reviva, the traceability layer.
One record per device, from customs to end of life.
- The importer Registers equipment at customs. At import, Reviva distinguishes new from used equipment, the blind spot of every extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme in West Africa.
- The company Pulls its end-of-life certificates: certified data erasure, per-device proof, a report ready for audit.
- The recycler Declares what was treated and recovered, which is what feeds the carbon credits.
- Import
- Collect
- Depollute
- Reuse or recover
Reviva traces all of it, from the moment a device enters the country.
One product, four operating pillars.
Traceability, sold as a service
Run as a subscription for the State and for companies. This is the pillar the other three report into.
Collect and dismantle
The hands-on operation: gather used electronics and take them apart safely to recover what is inside. We build on the State's existing pilot at Colobane, scaling toward Sandiara.
Erase data for the State
We securely wipe every old government computer and device, and certify it, before anything is recycled.
Earn carbon credits
Recycling instead of burning avoids CO2. That avoided pollution becomes certified carbon credits.
Phase 4 vision Solar PV recycling.
On the ground
What it looks like in practice.
Illustrative Illustrative footage of the operation. Colobane is an existing State pilot (110 t/yr); Sandiara operations are an opportunity in scoping, not yet contracted.
For companies
Your end-of-life IT fleet.
You cannot prove what became of a retired machine. That proof is what your auditor asks for.
Laptops, desktops, servers, network gear, medical and lab equipment, printers, screens. Certified NIST 800-88 data erasure, verifiable end-of-life certificates, an audit-ready report. Built for banks, healthcare and international organizations operating in Senegal.
Talk about your IT fleetTraction
- RKovera SAS incorporated
- Advisory Board, 3 of 4 seats filled
- Real-data POC at proposal stage (private sector, IT and medical fleet)
- Distinctions: WSIS Prizes 2025 (nominee), OST 2025 (1st place, Columbia University), UNEP Young Champions of the Earth 2026 (candidate)
- GIZ Senegal recommendation letter signed
Founder
Babacar Mbengue, Founder & CEO
Software engineer (ESP Dakar, EPITA Dakar), former Product & Operations Manager at Yello APP, where he grew the product from 0 to 300,000+ users.