Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, has inaugurated a committee on the setting up of a centralised metal scrap dump sites in all states and FCT.
The committee, which drew its members from stakeholders in the iron and steel sector, including National Association of Scraps and Waste Dealers Employers of Nigeria (NASWDEN), is chaired by the ministry’s Director of Industrial Development Department (IDD), Mr Adewale Bakare.
The minister noted that the iron and steel sector was critical to industrialisation of the economy, adding that Federal Government hoped to leverage on the sector to attain the ndustrialisation.
“On this basis, my ministry finds it quite expedient to come up with appropriate mechanisms to ensure sanity, growth and development of the iron and steel sector value chain, of which scrap and waste resources management is of importance,”he said.
He said the project would spread industrialisation across the country, with benefits in employment, infrastructure and income generation, distribution and increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
According to him, the dump sites would solve challenges of unregulated dumping and scavenging of metal scrap leading to vandalism of government and private property by hoodlums; unsorted/unclassified metal scrap types; and uncoordinated/unified pricing of metal scrap, among others.
Chairman of the committee, Bakare assured the minister of its readiness to ensure success of the assignment
The terms of reference of the committee include:
* Interface with the 36 state governments for land allocation for the dump sites;
*Come up with blueprint for the operations of the centralised scraps dump sites;
*come up with measures that will eliminate smuggling and exportation of metal scraps;
*Create a framework for sensitising local metal scavengers on the need to embrace the system of centralised scrap dump sites;
*explore funding options for the project; and
* Set up a framework for flagship dumping sites in each state of the six geo-political zones of the country on a pilot basis.