Cameroonian entrepreneur Fongwa Vanessa Ngwi has secured $5,000 in startup funding from the Scholars Enterprise Fund under the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at the University of Edinburgh, positioning her circular fashion startup Papylon at the centre of Africa’s fast-emerging sustainable textile economy.
The award highlights a growing wave of African entrepreneurs attempting to solve one of the continent’s most overlooked environmental threats which is mounting textile waste driven by the flood of imported fast fashion into local markets.
Ngwi, an environmental sustainability scholar and 2026 ONE UK Ambassador, said the funding will help restart Papylon as a circular economy enterprise focused not only on producing durable clothing for women but on building a local textile recovery system in Cameroon.
“I am thrilled to share that my business, Papylon, has been awarded $5,000 in startup capital from the Scholars Enterprise Fund (SEF) through the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at the University of Edinburgh,” Ngwi said.
The win comes as African countries increasingly grapple with the environmental and economic fallout from second-hand clothing imports and fast fashion waste streams, which have overwhelmed landfill systems from Ghana to Kenya and placed growing pressure on urban waste infrastructure.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, the global fashion industry generates an estimated 92 million tonnes of textile waste annually and accounts for up to 10% of global carbon emissions, more than international aviation and shipping combined.
Much of that burden increasingly ends up in developing economies.
In Cameroon, where imported low-cost clothing dominates informal retail markets, Ngwi said the original vision behind Papylon was to produce durable, size-inclusive fashion for women underserved by mainstream clothing imports.
“In 2020, I started Papylon. My goals were pretty simple: to create highly durable, size-inclusive everyday wear for women, and to be completely realistic, to make money,” she said.
“As an ‘extra small’ living in Cameroon, I was frustrated by a local market saturated with imported fast fashion that completely ignored diverse body types. I wanted to build a brand that made women feel seen, comfortable, and confident.”
But pursuing an MSc in Environmental Sustainability at the University of Edinburgh fundamentally reshaped the business model, Ngwi said, after she confronted the broader environmental consequences of textile production and disposal systems.
“Pursuing my MSc in Environmental Sustainability at the University of Edinburgh forced me to look at my passion project through a completely different lens,” she said.
“I realised that making durable clothes simply wasn’t enough. Local markets were already drowning in textile waste, and without a dedicated end-of-life infrastructure, even my carefully designed garments would eventually be dumped in local landfills or burned in our communities.”
The realisation pushed Papylon beyond fashion manufacturing into circular waste management infrastructure, a rapidly growing segment of Africa’s green economy that is attracting increased investor and development finance interest.
“To truly solve the problem, I knew I had to take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of my products,” Ngwi said.
“That realisation is exactly why I am restarting Papylon.”
Under the redesigned model, the startup plans to implement what it describes as a local “Take-Back Protocol,” incentivising customers to return worn-out clothing instead of discarding or burning textiles.
“We are introducing a local, zero-waste system powered by an incentivised ‘Take-Back Protocol,’ where customers can return unwearable clothing to us rather than throwing it away,” Ngwi said.
Papylon said the recovered textiles will contribute toward urban farming systems in Cameroon, embedding waste recovery into a broader green economy framework.
The enterprise describes itself as “an innovative social enterprise that produces high-quality clothes for females between the ages of 16 and 30.”
“We promote the principle of a green economy to better discard worn-out clothes in a manner that contributes towards improved urban farming in Cameroon,” the company said.
The funding was awarded through the Scholars Enterprise Fund, an initiative linked to the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at the University of Edinburgh, which supports young African entrepreneurs and scholars building socially impactful enterprises.
The Mastercard Foundation has significantly expanded its entrepreneurship and youth employment investments across Africa in recent years, targeting sectors including climate resilience, digital innovation, agriculture and green enterprise development as the continent faces mounting youth unemployment pressures.
Africa currently has the world’s youngest population, with more than 60% of Africans under the age of 25, according to the African Development Bank. At the same time, climate-related economic disruptions are intensifying demand for businesses capable of combining employment creation with environmental resilience.
Circular fashion and textile recovery systems are increasingly emerging as part of that opportunity.
Analysts say Africa’s sustainable fashion sector remains underdeveloped but holds major commercial potential as regulators, consumers and investors place greater scrutiny on waste-heavy global apparel supply chains.
Ngwi’s model also reflects a broader trend among African startups shifting from conventional sustainability messaging toward measurable circular economy systems capable of generating both environmental and economic returns.
The entrepreneur credited the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program and mentors at the University of Edinburgh for helping reshape the venture.
“A massive thank you to the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at the University of Edinburgh and everyone who has guided me through untangling my thoughts and finding the shape of what this could really be,” she said.
“Here is to the future of circular fashion in Cameroon.”
