By Kingsley Adegboye

Environment Minister, Mrs. Hadiza Ibrahim Mailafia has assured German investors of Nigeria’s willingness to partner with them in the establishment of waste recycling facilities in the country.

Receiving a delegation led by Mr. Michael Struve, an engineer in Abuja last week, Mrs. Mailafia said ‘’the government is determined to scale up investment in green infrastructure, including energy, transport, agriculture and other development activities through public-private partnership with reputable national and international entities which will include you.”

The Minister stated that opportunities for public-private partnership and investment existed in the areas of resource recycling for paper, glass and metal scraps, recovering of materials such as compost as well as  recovery of energy through biological or thermal processes.

“We require the establishment of adequate facilities for hazardous waste management, medical waste, electronic waste, persistent organic pollutants POPS, investment in clean energy and low carbon technologies, remediation of oil impacted areas, management of end of life vehicles. What we want is delivery of a system that is not complicated for us to manage, and a system that will create jobs for our people,” she said.

The Minister recalled various efforts of the Federal Government towards sustainable Waste Management in the country including the enhancement of regulatory frameworks, through the establishment of enforcement agencies like NESREA and NOSDRA.

According to her, the country’s position as the most populous nation in Africa posed immense environmental challenges, with the monumental generation of wastes, whether solid or otherwise.

Responding, Mr. Michael Struve lamented the damage which inadequate and improper use of the environment had visited on the nation. He promised to assist the country with a very powerful German company, if the Ministry of Environment signed a Memorandum of Understanding MOU, with them.

He said they would deploy modern technology to address the issue of waste management in an environmentally friendly way.