Togo imports an estimated 500,000 tonnes of e-waste a year, some of which can be a health hazard, but it also inspires local innovators and provides jobs, as Waihiga Mwaura reports.

It looks like a spider and it moves like one, but this robot creature cannot just be dismissed as a toy.

It is also a symbol of the digital revolution brewing in one of the West Africa's smallest countries. "I made this form a discarded 3D printer," Ousia Foil-Babe says, pointing at his robotic arachnid. "The plastic retrieved from the printer became the arms and legs. And I made a 3D printer as well from e-waste. I actually learned how to make the printer from the internet," he adds.

Mr Foil-Babe takes the robot spider into schools, hoping to interest the students in science and recycling. "My hope is to make a science kit so that they can begin to make their own things ands love the problems of their community, " the inventor says.

His Ecotec lab is situated in Amadanhome on the outskirts of Togo's capital, Lomé.

About e-waste:

• E-waste refers to all items of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) discarded by its owner as waste.
• In 2016, 44 million tonnes of e-waste was generated globally.
• Only 20% of this was recycled.
• By 2021 this is expected to rise to 52.2 million tonnes.