Gov. Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun on Thursday urged government at all levels to put in place mechanism for waste management to create jobs and to check outbreak of diseases.
Amosun gave the advice in Abuja at a two-day summit on asset and waste management tagged: “Resource Efficiency: Asset to Waste, Waste to Wealth, a Sustainable Future.”
Represented by the State Commissioner for Environment, Mr Bolaji Oyeleye, the governor said robust waste management could address unemployment in the country.
He stressed the urgent need for policymakers to come up with ways to regenerate waste into finished products.
“If Nigeria will realise her ambition of being a global player in investment and make giant strides in attracting multinational industries, we need to tackle the issues of waste management with utmost seriousness.
“The best principle that is being advocated is the 3Rs, Reduce, Re-use and Recycle.
“Reduce, finding ways of minimising the amount of waste generated, re-use means repeated use of items which still have usable aspects, while recycle means the use of waste itself as a resource.
“The obvious advantage of this is the economic consideration of turning waste to wealth and tackling the twin evil of environmental pollution and its effects on the climate,” he said.
Amosun said Ogun had already taken the lead in converting waste to wealth.
According to him, the state is hosting the largest numbers of recycling facilities in the country in terms of plastic, metal and paper recycling.
The governor said the state encouraged private individuals and investors to partner it in the areas of waste disposal and management.
Amosun also said efforts were being intensified to establish a waste-to-energy-plant that could meet the state’s power requirement.
He said the initiative would reduce final waste disposed at dump sites to 20 percent of total waste generated in the state.
Amosun challenged the summit to come up with a blueprint that would guide the country in waste management.
In his remarks, the British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Simon Shereliff said the population was the greatest asset of Nigeria.
Shereliff said waste to wealth initiative was being taken seriously by the British government and expressed willingness to support Nigeria in that direction.
According to him, the British government has invested 3.2 billion pounds into waste management, where thousands of persons are employed.
The high commissioner urged the Nigeria to increase investment in waste management and commended Ogun state for taking the lead.
Also speaking, Mr Chidi Umeano, the Principal Consultant, Codub Ltd, organisers of the summit, noted that the country was facing severe economic challenges but there was hope in waste management sector.
Umeano claimed that the UK which experiences economic meltdown in recent years made 10 billion pounds through waste recycling in 2015.
He said with the dwindling oil prices, it was time Nigeria give priority attention to waste management, noting that the private sector remains a force to be reckoned with in that regard.
He urged the government at the various levels to encourage the private sector to invest in waste management to create jobs.
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