The Nation Newspaper

Tag: AWAMN

  • AWAMN: weak enforcement, poor support undermining years of progress

    AWAMN: weak enforcement, poor support undermining years of progress

    From the private sector, however, concerns are growing that Lagos is losing ground it once painstakingly gained. The President of the Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria (AWAMN), Dr. Olugbenga Adebola, cautioned that policy inconsistency, weak enforcement, and insufficient government support are steadily eroding decades of progress. “There was a time when Lagos moved from being one of the dirtiest cities in the world to one of the cleanest in Africa,” Adebola recalled. “By the end of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s tenure as governor, Lagos had won awards and became a model for other states and African countries. We should not be back at this level.”

    Adebola stressed that waste management is a capital-intensive, private-sector-driven business. “This is not a Father Christmas service. Investors will only come where there is certainty of returns. At the moment, the enabling environment is not encouraging,” he said. He pointed to poor compliance with laws requiring households to register with and pay PSP operators. “Those who refuse to pay are often the same people dumping waste on highways and in drainages, and that is what destroys the city’s aesthetics,” he noted.

    Population pressure, he added, has compounded the challenge. As West Africa’s economic hub, Lagos attracts millions of daily visitors who generate large volumes of waste. “Lagos is catering to a massive population with a relatively limited budget,” Adebola said, renewing calls for special federal status for the state to reflect its unique burden. He also criticised the continued reliance on ageing dumpsites. “Olusosun is almost 40 years old. We should have moved from burying waste to treating waste. Waste is not waste unless you waste it,” he said.

    Read Also: Firm wins Dangote Cement’s largest distributor award

    According to Adebola, more than half of Africa’s waste stream is organic and can be converted into fertiliser, biogas, or biomethane, while high-calorific waste can be processed into refuse-derived fuel. Globally, he noted, governments subsidise waste management because it is a public good. “Here, operators are struggling with bank loans at 29 or 30 per cent interest. That is not sustainable.” He warned that poor waste management represents a form of “pre-healthcare failure,” directly linked to malaria, cholera, dysentery, and Lassa fever. Without subsidies, grants, and affordable financing, he cautioned, Lagos risks squandering the gains it once achieved.

    As Lagos explores solutions ranging from expanded recycling to waste-to-energy initiatives, the message from both regulators and operators is clear: a clean city cannot be delivered by trucks and laws alone. It requires consistent policy, sustained investment, and, above all, a shift in public behaviour. For a megacity already straining under its own success, how it manages its waste may ultimately determine its health, longevity, and economic resilience.

    He also highlighted the impact of inflation on equipment costs, noting that foreign-used compactor trucks that sold for about N8–N10 million a few years ago now cost between N55 million and N60 million. “This is the reality we are facing,” Adebola said. “That is why we are calling on the Federal Government, and on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, our grand patron, to establish special funding to support waste management. Without such intervention, the gains we once made will continue to slip away.”

  • How to achieve effective, efficient waste management, by AWAMN

    How to achieve effective, efficient waste management, by AWAMN

    THERE must be collaboration between the government and Private Sector Participants (PSPs) to achieve an effective and efficient waste management system, the Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria (AWAMN) has said.

    The association called for an enabling environment for its members to deliver sparkling streets in the Lagos, the State of Aqua Splendor.

    In a chat with reporters in Lagos, AWAMN President Olugbenga Adebola stressed the importance public-private synergy in waste collection and management in the Centre of Excellence.

    According to him, efficient waste management requires commitment and collaboration of the government and PSP operators.

    He canvassed for a round-table discussion to enable representatives of the government and the association chart a course in tackling identified challenges in the waste management value chain.

    Adebola said: “We would like to thank the LASG, the Managing Director of LAWMA who has graciously announced to the whole world that they are buying compacting trucks on the lease to own for PSP operators.

    “I think it is a good gesture. However, I want to say, regrettably, that this is not the only solution to effective and efficient waste management, perhaps, 10 to 15 per cent.

    “Having an effective and efficient waste management system operating in Lagos state goes beyond just the purchase of trucks for the PSP owners on the lease to own.

    “Around October 2023, we did a comprehensive letter to the government, identifying some of the problems militating against effective and efficient waste management in the state.

    “As professionals, ours is to identify some of these problems and perhaps find solution,” the AWAMN boss said.

    He noted that the challenges identified by the association in its memo of October last year still linger.

    Adebola said: “We explained to the government that if we are able to attend to some of the raised issues, we would have made some progress.

    “Here we are with the narrative of trucks for lease, we don’t know what make the would-be-trucks are made of.

    “The current truck that is been used by LAWMA, which were purchased from Sino trucks, we co-designed the truck to tell them the size of the engine, because of the diesel we have in Nigeria.

    “While the whole world is using Euro 10, euro 12, euro 13, in Nigeria we can’t use that and we sat down with the manufacturers to tell them the kind of diesel engine we can use in Nigeria.

    “We told them how low bed it could be, why they can also build a back for the attendants, to sit; so we solved the problem of hanging at the back of the truck. These are the things we did with the previous truck.

    “We should really be part of this new arrangement, more so, since these trucks are coming on a lease to own, which means that you own by paying, it is not a free of charge thing.

    “If we are going to pay for it, the operators need to be involved to be able to have something that would suit us.

    “How long lasting, how sustaining are those trucks, are they CNG trucks, are they trucks that is going to run on diesel, what chassis are they made of.

    “We don’t know all of these; so we are reading it on the pages of newspapers,” Adebola said.

    Stating that the trucks cannot be the solution, Adebola said: “If you are getting a lease to own truck, what mechanism is in place to ensure that you also have an effective and total cost recovery.

    “How are you able to recoup and recover savings to be able to pay for the truck? Otherwise, it would turn into a bad debt. With the current charges that is prevalent in the state, I am afraid, you cannot break even.”

    He noted that enabling environment begins with the agreement, Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) entered between the government and the PSPs.

    Adebola went on: “If am investing huge sums of money, how long will it take me to recoup such money with reasonable profit and then pay back such a loan.

    “What mechanism is in place that ensures every waste generator actually pays for waste disposal and where it is known that this is the lowest of the lowest of the economy, then, the government must come in.

    Read Also: AWAMN unveils 2025 international conference to champion sustainable waste management

    “What agreement was given to Vision Scape Services (VSS),” Adebola said.

    He noted that when Vision Scape was handling waste management under the Ambode regime, it was the government that was paying VSS.

    Adebola said: “As an investor, that will help me knowing that every month I have a guaranteed sum of money coming into my account.

    “Right now a lot of operators who went to bank and got loan of 27 to 33 per cent cannot repay back, and this is not the type of funding that can support effective and efficient waste management.

    “You need green funding. Some will be grant, some will be single digit interest loan, but above all, it must be long term.

    “If you go outside the country, people that are into this type of business are getting loan at three, four or five per cent interest and sometimes the tenure is over 20 years.

    “You cannot go to a commercial bank in Nigeria and get such a loan,” Adebola said.

    Describing waste managers are essential service providers, Adebola said there should be a special funding, either from the state or from the federal for waste management.