Our story
The TV journalist Dr. Sonja Sagmeister met a cab driver in Vienna, who was born in Cameroon.
Plastic spoils the environment in Cameroon. The beaches and streets are dirty and nobody picks the garbage. He migrated to Austria and saw clean streets in Vienna and garbage collection that worked perfectly well. He showed photos of his home country that was spoiled with garbage and wanted to do something against it.
Together with her help he put the idea of AMABO into reality. This happened 2018. Dr. Sonja Sagmeister became the founder of an African- Austrian startup.
The AMABO factory is situated between the toll gate and Tiko. The head office is in Douala, Bonamoussadi. With support and funding of the Austrian development aid ADA, the Austrian development bank (OeEB) money from a family trust and a private investor the AMABO became reality and the commissioning of the plant took place December 2019.
AMABO brings hope and new jobs to young people in a crisis zone in South West close to Tiko. Cameroon’s first ever eco-friendly roof tile manufacturing plant, AMABO, was commissioned in South West of Cameroon end of the year 2019. On behalf of the Prime Minister, the Minister for Industry Dodo Ndoke was joining the opening event together with high-ranking EU diplomats of the EU External Action Service EEAS in order to show political support for this environment project.
Since 30th of January 2020, the AMABO factory has been running and producing world-class roofing tiles at full capacity. Also, the Ministry for industry Dodo Ndoke was at the opening event in January together with EU diplomats of the EU External Action Service EEAS. The event took place in the Southwest in the factory as well as in the Musee` Maritime in Douala.
AMABO won in the years 2020/ 2021 the “European Rising Star award”. The EU commissioner for Environment awarded this certificate, defining AMABO roof tiles as “ideal product for tropical regions in Africa” because these innovative roof tiles are shatterproof and insulate against heat and humidity.