Ghana's plastic waste sector continues to struggle to attract sustained private investment despite significant activity across its value chain, with weak structures, poor visibility and fragmented systems undermining investor confidence, CircularTech founder Nabeela Abubakari has said.

Speaking during the second edition of the Loud and Green XSpace hosted by JoyNews and Beyond the Science (BTS), Ms Abubakari said the country's plastic resource economy has strong commercial potential but lacks the systems required to make it attractive to investors.

According to her, the challenge is not a lack of interest from investors in sustainability initiatives, but the absence of the structures needed to make the sector bankable.

She explained that while economic activity exists across the plastic value chain, it is not organised in a way that enables formal financial institutions to accurately assess opportunities and commit long-term capital.

"The plastic resource economy is active and economically viable, but it is still not properly organised in a way that allows formal financial institutions to understand, price and scale investment into it," she said.

Ms Abubakari noted that corporate organisations are increasingly interested in supporting sustainability and circular economy initiatives. However, weak data systems and poorly coordinated market structures continue to limit their ability to evaluate investment opportunities.

She said the disconnect between real economic activity and financial visibility remains one of the biggest obstacles to attracting capital into Ghana's plastic economy.

According to her, strengthening systems around waste collection, aggregation, pricing and processing will be critical to improving transparency and making the sector more attractive to investors.

She stressed that improving organisation across the value chain would help change investor perceptions while unlocking long-term financing to support growth in Ghana's circular economy.

Ms Abubakari concluded that although the sector continues to generate significant environmental and economic value, it will remain underfinanced until these structural gaps are addressed.