Close the Gap - Mombasa Circular Economy Hub for Refurbished ICT

Close the Gap, a Belgian non-profit/social enterprise founded in 2003, redistributes decommissioned European IT equipment to schools, SMEs and social projects in developing countries. It has operated in Kenya since around 2013 and opened a Mombasa hub in 2019, moving in 2020 to a larger Circular Economy Hub (CE-Hub) at Jomvu.

A 2022 University of Jyväskylä master's thesis, based on interviews with Close the Gap staff and Mombasa SME managers, documents that one SME's 1,000-unit consignment arrived with roughly 20% of units defective, and that end-of-life units still leak to informal scrap dealers. Close the Gap's own 2020 targets (105,000 assets refurbished, improved access for 1.2 million Kenyan students) are stated goals, not independently confirmed achievements, and its global cumulative figures are self-reported with no located independent audit.