UK okays more foreign investments for Lagos

• Firm set to build waste-to-energy plant

By Dada Jackson

The British government has given a seal of approval for more foreign investments in Lagos State, as plans get underway for the take off of the first waste-to-energy plant in the state.

The Deputy British High Commissioner in Nigeria, Mr Ben Jones, gave the official nod when he spoke at Igando refuse dumpsite after a guided tour of facilities of West African ENRG alongside state officials led by the Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tunji Bello.

His words: “Though some people think about Nigeria and investments and look the other way, we say ‘look this way’. We will help you and it is a real opportunity here, as it is being demonstrated today, and even opportunities to grow beyond even what is being achieved now, which is so fantastic”.

“It is absolutely outstanding what is being achieved using British technology, finance and real great Nigerian drive and expertise to create something special that is really going to grow and grow.”

The diplomat reiterated that so many issues of climate change, challenge of pollution, challenge of drainage and of plastics getting into the drains propped up at the site but are being solved by the West African ENRG  waste conversion facility.

Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources Tunji Bello while welcoming the team said the quest of West African ENRG to move from waste to wealth to establishing the first waste to energy facility spoke volume about the conducive business atmosphere in Lagos.

Bello who was with the Perm Sec, Environmental Services, Mrs Belinda Odeneye, and LAWMA MD, Ibrahim Odumboni, said West African ENRG came to Lagos in 2014, had its waste conversion plant unveiled by Babatunde Fashola as Lagos governor in 2015, saying the company now planned to set up a waste to energy plant.

“There were some intervals of difficulties that we have now successfully overcome. Now, we have been able to restore all that they started with. They have also improved on a lot of things. You must have observed during the inspection today a lot of conversion processes from waste to plastics, rubber, cans and bottles,” Bello stated.

The commissioner said from the brief and visual clips on the proposed waste to energy project presented by West African ENRG, it was clear that if the organisation had more enablement, it would make further progress in waste conversion.

“Lagos has always been a Mecca of investments. What we just need to do is to make sure that infrastructural developments are accelerated and substantial progress is being made in that regard. We have the roads, water and other infrastructural facilities ready,” he said.

While taking the guests round, the CEO West African ENRG, Paul O’Callaghan, said his organisation planned to invest about 125 to 150 million dollars to build a 25 megawatts waste to energy facility that would process 2.5 tonnes of waste daily.

“At the moment, it takes 3 to 4 hours in the dry season to tip waste at the open landfill site to the wet season that takes as much as 24 hours depending on the weather. We are committing to under 30mins and aiming for 15 minutes turnaround time,” Paul said.

He said the new project meant the PSP would move from houses to the waste to energy facility and within 15 minutes would be back on the streets collecting waste, thus creating better economy for the PSP and a quicker and cleaner Lagos.

Mr O’Callaghan who was with the COO, Lolade Oresanwo, expressed readiness to convert Olusosun dumpsite to a  waste to energy facility that would be built to British standard in terms of emission control if closed down, adding that it would take approximately 20 months to complete after groundbreaking.

Managing Director of LAWMA, Ibrahim Odumboni, who was part of the team, expressed confidence with what he had seen there was the capacity to cope with the level of recyclables to be generated from the society while sorting from source.

“For me, this is an encouragement for us to give them an enabling environment to do something similar around here and other parts of Lagos so that we can bring development and prosperity to circular economy within the state,” he said.