Adeniyi Adebayo, the minister of industry, trade, and investment, established a standing committee yesterday to establish centralized metal waste dumpsites throughout all of the federation’s states, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The National Association of Scraps and Waste Dealers Employers of Nigeria (NASWDEN), among other important stakeholders in the iron and steel industry, provided members for the committee, which is presided over by Mr. Adewale Bakare, director of the ministry’s Industrial Development Department (IDD).
The committee’s mandate calls for it to: work with the 36 state governments to secure land for the dump sites; develop a blueprint for the operations of the centralized scrap dump sites; devise strategies to stop the exportation and smuggling of metal scraps; establish a framework for educating local metal scavengers on the necessity of embracing the system of centralised scrap dump sites; and investigate funding options for the project.
The Minister reiterated the sector’s relevance to the industrialization of the country’s economy during the committee’s inauguration and added that the federal government is determined to use it to achieve the intended goal of industrialization in the medium- to long-term.
“On this premise, my Ministry thinks it quite imperative to build adequate mechanisms that would assure sanity, growth, and development of the iron and steel sector value chain, of which scrap and waste resources management is of utmost importance,” Adebayo stated.
According to the project’s idea, it will lead to the expansion of industrialization throughout the nation, which will have a positive impact on employment, the development of infrastructure, the distribution of income, and the growth of gross domestic products, he said (GDP).
He claims that when the dumpsites are built, they will address issues such unregulated metal scrap dumping and scavenging, which has resulted in criminals damaging public and private property, types of unsorted/unclassified metal scrap, and inconsistent/uniform pricing of metal scrap, among others.
In response, the committee’s chairman, Bakare, reassured the minister that the committee was prepared to work diligently to ensure the completion of the task.
