The Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria (AWAMN) has said that unlocking Nigeria’s green potentials in the waste value chain would require an all encompassing government policy from bottom to the top.
The National President, AWAMN, Mr Olugbenga Adebola said this in an interview on the sidelines of the Lagos Waste Forum in Lagos.
Adebola said that the critical stakeholders in the industry need to gather together to sit down in a round table to discuss what is workable in driving the waste management industry forward.
He said there was more than enough expertise in the industry, but asked how much of them were been put to use.
“Government must make a provision for adequate funding.
“We are not saying that government should provide grants, even if that is possible, but loan facility at single digit interest, which I call government specific funding options.
“Not the type of the commercial interest we get in the bank and they give you for just two years,” Adebola said.
He noted that the waste management industry is highly capital intensive by nature.
“Talk about the trucks, the equipment for collection; these are running into several millions of dollars.
“It is not the type of funding you get today and in the next three months someone is running after you.
“It should be a long term investment and so government should provide an enabling environment so that when you invest such funds, you can get back your investment,” Adebola said.
The president said that the government should ensure that the policy that supports efficient and effective waste collection is enthroned.
“There must be a deliberate policy that ensures that every waste that is generated must be sort at source.
“There is no waste. waste is not a waste except you waste it. but what we do here is to ensure that the wastes are not comingled, when you comingle wastes you don’t get the best materials for recycling.
“And when you don’t get the best materials for recycling you cannot be talking about circular economy.
” And government must also give incentives,” Adebola said.
He argued that the practice of circular economy goes beyond waste management to include retrofitting the equipment; the current equipment that is been used.
He said that the industrialists also needs to be supported to change into the use of equipment that would support circularity, sustainable living and sustainable development.
“There must be collaboration, cooperation and partnership between the government and the industry and with the gown.
“Talking about the universities, we must begin to marry the town and the gown.
“There are so many researches that are sitting down there at the citadel of the universities. We need to begin to implement them.
“We can begin to develop even the smallest of the equipment that would convert our wastes into valuable.
“You need to see what the Asian tigers are bringing to Africa, and they try to displace our own people who are into local manufacturing of these materials.
“Government must protect the livelihoods, the small investments of Nigerians so that the SMEs who are the engine room of our economy will be supported and protected by the government,” Adebola said.