Alex Rose-Innes
Working with an entrepreneurial father, it came as no surprise that 21-year old Abdelouahab Toukkart would start a business which saw an inordinate amount of paper waste in Morocco turned into packaging for the sweet and baking industry. In order to follow his dream, Toukkart left university and for a while honed his innate entrepreneurial skills under the watchful eye of Toukkart Snr.
Recycling used industrial paper, Toukkart processes it, then prints and cuts it into various shapes and sizes for further use instead of feeding a growing landfill in the country.
Designing bespoke boxes, Toukkart’s business, Isla Pack, also prints on demand and has seen his business growing as bakeries, restaurants and sweet stores became regular clients. This enterprising young man, a finalist in the global Anzisha Prize Programme*, supplies more than 100 000 boxes to clients every month.
According to him, his candy boxes are the still the most popular, but his baking and cooking wrappings are also becoming known and he is seeing that section of his manufacturing business growing as well.* The Anzisha Prize Programme is a partnership between the African Leadership Academy and the MasterCard Foundation that seeks to fundamentally and significantly increase the number of very young job generative entrepreneurs in Africa.
