Examining untapped opportunities in solid waste management
Many Nigerian entrepreneurs do not look the way of solid waste management. This is principally because they are yet to understand that the sector is laden with opportunities, particularly in an atmosphere of public-private partnership.
In Nigeria today, wastes are indiscriminately dumped at various corners, thereby constituting health and environmental hazards.
However, one thing government at various levels and the private sector have failed to recognise is that the wastes can be turned into wealth and renewable energy.
Oyo State is a clear case. The state government hitherto spent N3.6 billion on clearing wastes each year. This was a burden on the government. Ernst &Young (EY), a multinational professional services firm, was bought in to explore how the private sector can do more to support the government while tapping into the revenue opportunity.
The EY carried out a study and came up with a workable model for the private-public partnership.
EY found that a large portion of wastes generated in Ibadan is dumped on available plots of land, sidewalks, roads, streams, channels and drains. In fact, it is estimated that 84 percent of wastes in the city end up in unauthorised places.
It was found that the quantity of waste management in the political capital of the South West region in 2012 was about 635,000 tons, comprising mainly organic wastes (42 percent), paper (ten percent), plastics (nine percent), metals (five percent), glass (four percent) and wood (three percent).
The Oyo State Waste Management Agency (OYOWMA) has always had the final say in this area, even though 30 percent of the total waste collection was done by private refuse collectors.
According to OYOWMA, there are now 214 registered private contractors collecting wastes in 11 local government areas. The structure of the solid waste management in Ibadan is such that 80 percent of the monthly collection charges are collected by private waste collectors, while 20 percent is either paid or retained by OYOWMA.
Having brought together all the stakeholders in Ibadan last Thursday, EY explained the possibilities and opportunities available in the segment and stressed that there is already a legal framework that will guarantee good private-public relationship.
Explaining the detail in Ibadan, Ayodeji Ogunyemi, director, advisory services, EY, told a gathering of stakeholders that there are key challenges such as finance and human resources, among others, but added that the way forward is for the private sector to collect wastes and then pay a percentage to OYOWMA.
Ogunyemi told BusinessDay that currently in Lagos, private participators are collecting wastes and converting same into fertilizer and fuels, stressing that the model that now works is for waste depositors to pay to the private sector collectors.
“When the process works properly, there is money to be made,” he said.
“Private sector can scale their operation to match their input. if you have enough wastes to set up five mega power plant, you can do so. There is plenty of waste and money can be made from it,” he added.
ODINAKA ANUDU