The French Development Agency (AFD) on Wednesday February 15th, 2023 in Abuja, gave the Federal Government of Nigeria, technical assistant on how to manage solid waste.
This was unveiled by the Honorable Minister of Environment, Alhaji Mohammed Abdullahi, in collaboration with Her Excellency, The French Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Mrs Emmanuelle Blatmann and AFD Country Director, Mr. Xavier Muron.
The deliverables included Technical Assistance (TA) programme to support the Nigerian federal management framework on solid waste.
In a press statement by the French Embassy Public Relations Officer, Onyinye Madu, and made available to the media in Abuja, capital of Nigeria, said that the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has undertaken significant efforts in recent years to improve its national waste management policy, including the development of the National Policy on Solid Waste Management (SWM) and the National Policy on Plastic Waste Management.
The statement however, noted that despite Nigeria’s strong commitment, the country is still facing a number of challenges to enhance solid waste management, in line with circular economy and sustainable treatment facilities, hence the support.
“From February 2021 to August 2022, The French Development Agency (AFD) financed a technical assistance programme for the Federal Ministry of Environment to support the implementation of its solid waste management framework.
“This technical assistance was carried out by a consortium of Nigerian and French companies (JV Hydroconseil, UrbaConsulting and Weir Capacity) who worked together towards a relationship of trust with the Federal Ministry of Environment.”
According to the statement, “Through a gap analysis work, stakeholder engagement, and capacity building, the programme has permitted a better understanding of SWM constraints and challenges in Nigeria and improved knowledge of partner States in SWM practices. It strengthened the dialogue between the Federal Ministry, Federated States, and all the stakeholders engaged in the sector,” adding that throughout the TA Programme, seminars and workshops were organised with relevant institutions and agencies on operational level including pre-collection, collection, transport, landfill, recycling, extended producer responsibility and green certification mechanisms.
The statement further disclosed that the TA confirmed the interest of 16 partner States in the subject and underlined the need for support and capacity building in translating the national SWM roadmap into action at their level, adding that the major deliverables produced during the programme with all stakeholders were the National Roadmap, which operationalizes the municipal stage of the two national solid waste and plastic waste management policies, and the National Database, which allows for monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the Roadmap.
In her remarks, the French Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Her Excellency, Emmanuelle Blatmann, said,
“France, through the AFD, has been very pleased to support this project, as it demonstrates our commitment to accompany Nigeria in its efforts towards a green trajectory, in line with the Nigeria’s National Determined Contributions and the Paris Agreement for Climate.”
She disclosed thst those policy tools are adapted to the Nigerian regulatory framework, pointing out that “the FMENV plays a key role in the process of improvement of solid waste management and in supporting the States on the implementation of adaptive systems at the local level.”
According to Blatmann, the implementation of a robust solid waste management framework will have many positive impacts, whether it is on health, greenhouse gas emissions reduction and consequently climate change, biodiversity or environment as a whole.