Looking back: Lagos (Nigeria) Strategy Week
April 05, 2024
From March 25th to 28th 2024 Holland Circular Hotspot together with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), the Consulate General in Lagos, the Embassy in Abuja, the Nigerian Government and the Lagos Circular Business Platform organised a strategy week to concretise the national circular roadmap.
During this week relevant stakeholders from the Nigerian government, businesses, knowledge institutes and NGOs, worked on circular economy and waste interventions with short- and medium-term perspective.
"What started as a small scoping study in 2019 in Lagos, led to the launch of the Circular Business Platform Lagos in 2021, and the first Circular Hotspot event on the African continent in 2023. Today, there is a draft Nigerian national road circular economy roadmap!
Freek van Eijk, director of Holland Circular Hotspot
Collaboration for a more circular Nigeria
During the strategy week that took place in Lagos, Nigeria many Dutch and Nigerian stakeholders came together to work on two main initiatives, one of which has already been signed with the Lagos State Government:
- install a smelter in Nigeria to recycle e-waste in Africa in collaboration with Closing the Loop started by Joost de Kluijver and Reinhardt Smit
- accelerate the concretisation of a waste to energy plant in Lagos, under the guidance of Luuk Rietveld and Rosanne van Miltenburg from Harvest Waste.
During the week, various sessions regarding the roadmap to fight food waste using circular solutions were organized. Among those, the circular design workshop hosted by Lilian van Hoven from CIRCO, allowed to find a local partner that will further share the lessons learnt in Nigeria. This will be CIRCO’s first partner hub on the African continent.
Highlights from the week
Nigerian momentum for circular economy
Nigeria’s population is one of the world’s fastest growing, set to surpass the USA’s population by 2050. This growth is coupled with an increased need for productivity in a sustainable manner, which can be achieved through the production and consumption principles of the circular economy.
The circular opportunities in Nigeria are multiple, and the closeness of the country to sustainable development is high. Hence, there is momentum for true circular application as well as further formalisation of waste management activities in areas such as the Agri-food & Biomass sector, plastics and packaging, electronics and waste to energy including digestion.
The Netherland Enterprise Agency (RVO), the Consulate General in Lagos, the Embassy in Abuja and Holland Circular Hotspot have been working intensively with local stakeholders such as Nigerian ministries, industries and the Lagos Circular Business Platform powered by the Circular Economy Innovation Partnership (CEIP) on pragmatic steps. Dutch expertise, coupled with the existing commitment from the Nigerian government and the private sector can render fruitful and lucrative outcomes for all parties involved. During the event a lot of local best practices were given the opportunity to share their innovations in speed dating like sessions.
![Lagos [Nigeria] Strategy Week](https://hollandcircularhotspot.nl/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Unknown-600x450.jpeg)