Ogoja Refugee Camp- Cocoyam Processor

Meeting Time 

Wednesday 6PM

Project Description 

Spring 2023 is the first semester for this project. Pounded cocoyam, yam, and plantain are staple meals in much of West and Central Africa. Traditionally, this food is prepared by pounding boiled cocoyams, cassava, plantain, and yam. The process is labor-intensive and time-consuming. It can take up to 2 hours to pound the cocoyams.  A few rich people in the cities in Africa and the diaspora have found creative ways to still eat the food by using blenders to process the food. However, mothers in rural areas still use the traditional manual method of pounding the cocoyam using a mortar and pestle. Preparing the food takes enormous amounts of time from women in performing other productive activities. ​

There is a need to improve upon the process of preparing the food by designing a simple and affordable system to use to process the food. Such a system will not only help those in the villages with no electricity but also people in the cities that have roadside restaurants that sell the food. Even the rich people in the cities will still like to use it, since it reduces their electricity consumption through using the blender to make the food.