From Trash to Treasure: The Cameroon Startup Turning Waste into Industrial Gold

BleagLee's Juveline Ngum Ngwa just beat 2,000 rivals from 100 countries to win $1 million. Her secret? AI-powered stoves, drone-mapped dumpsites, and a stubborn refusal to quit.

She keeps no uranium rod on her desk. No ancient hand ax or Concorde jet blade wrapped in a bathroom towel. The artifacts that line the shelves of Juveline Ngum Ngwa's office in Bamenda, Cameroon, are far more humble: a crumpled rejection email from an early investor, a scrap of drone-mapping code scrawled on a coffee-stained napkin, and a prototype smokeless stove hammered together from salvaged scrap metal.