General
Dow Partners Nigerian Firms to Tackle Plastic Waste
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
An initiative called Project ReflexNG, which aims to collect and recycle plastic waste in Lagos, Nigeria, has been launched by Dow in partnership with some local firms.
The Nigeria-based firms involved in this scheme include Omnik, RecylePoints and the Lagos Business School Sustainability Centre.
The parties will specifically recycle water sachets through a pilot program, designed to show that they can be collected and recycled to be utilised in new, quality packaging applications.
A statement from Dow disclosed that the project aims to divert 600 MT of sachet water pouches (approximately 300 million sachets) which otherwise would have ended up in the environment or landfill, into recycling applications, while promoting education to engrain sustainability into a select group of small and medium waste entrepreneurs.
The pilot is set up to enable a viable business case for the use of recyclate (resins made from recycled plastics) in non-food primary packaging applications.
According to Dow, this initiative aligns with its global Stop The Waste sustainability target which will enable the collection, reuse or recycling of one million metric tons of plastic globally by 2030.
An estimated 19 per cent of the Nigerian population still does not have access to clean, safe drinking water.
Though access to clean water has improved significantly over the last decade, it is crucial that everyone has access to it.
For many years, water sachets have provided an affordable and readily available source of drinking water for the masses, particularly in heavily populated urban environments like Lagos.
These pouches have become a fundamental part of life for millions of Nigerians every day.
However, their widespread consumption has led to the unintended consequence of environmental pollution due to inadequate waste management infrastructure and poor waste disposal behaviour.
As in many developing countries, there is an informal waste collection economy, but this favours rigid plastic in Nigeria and disregards low weight water sachets because waste pickers are paid by weight.
The water sachets will be collected by RecyclePoints, a waste management company, which uses kiosks, a phone app and employs waste pickers in order to collect waste that can be recycled.
The kiosks act as a bring-back focal point for the community to return waste in exchange for groceries, mobile phone credits, cash and other useful items. The app can coordinate pick-ups from several points around the city.
The collection part of the project is being funded by Dow’s Impact Fund and will expand to include additional collection partners in a later phase.
Once the waste is collected, it will be taken to Omnik, where it will be processed into PCR (post-consumer recyclate).
Currently, the first few batches have been collected and sent to Dow’s Pack Studios in Tarragona, Spain, where they will be analysed and tested.
Based on this assessment, Dow and Omnik will collaborate to enhance the properties of the recyclates so they can adequately be used again.
Additionally, as part of this project, Omnik has funded a stationary buy-back centre, operated by RecyclePoints, at premises of Lagos State Ministry of Environment to create long-term infrastructure for recovering plastic waste.
The project aims to create an end-use for the waste stream of water sachets, while employing over 200 registered waste pickers through RecyclePoints, for this new waste stream. The pilot will potentially increase the income of 8,000 RecyclePoints app subscribers.
Lagos Business School’s Sustainability Centre (LBS sustainability Centre) will act as an educational partner to enable small and medium waste enterprises to learn sustainability principles to enhance their businesses.
Currently, LBS sustainability Centre runs a Circular Economy series and are partnering with Dow to train a selected group of 40 social entrepreneurs who currently have businesses in the waste management space.
The goal is to ensure that the education and materials these entrepreneurs receive through the process will result in long term sustainable collection for flexible packaging, specifically water sachets.
“Currently, more than 90 per cent of waste generated in Africa is disposed at uncontrolled dumpsites and landfills.
“Through our partnerships with Nigerian enterprises, academic institutions and local industry associations, we are making significant strides in addressing the crises of plastic waste and proving that the material does have intrinsic value,” said Adwoa Coleman, Dow’s Africa Sustainability and Advocacy Manager for Packaging and Specialty Plastics. “Together with our industry partners and in alignment with Nigeria’s vision for plastic waste management, we are creating new opportunities for local business entrepreneurs and their surrounding communities.”
“Plastic is a man-made solution to a pre-existing problem. Rather than turning it into the problem, we should continue to find sustainable environmentally friendly ways to ensure it continues to serve its purpose as the most affordable and hygienic form of packaging,” said Alkesh Thavrani, Managing Director, Omnik Ltd.
Mazi Ukonu of RecyclePoints adds, “Circular Economy can only thrive if players at the different stages of the waste recovery value chain run viable activities, especially the waste pickers who are the unsung heroes of waste recycling in frontier markets like ours.”
By collaborating with individuals and organizations that are already supporting waste management infrastructure and recycling, Project ReflexNG is driving local, sustainable solutions for Nigeria. Beyond the pilot phase which runs to February 2021, Dow will scale up Project ReflexNG to recover even more quantities of flexible packaging with potential for replication across the region.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
About 3,000 widows in Ogun State have been empowered with cash grants and business tools by the wife of the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Mrs Temitope Adeola.
Her husband, Mr Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, popularly known as Yayi, is currently the Senator representing Ogun West Senatorial District at the National Assembly.
He was picked as the consensus candidate of the ruling APC for the 2027 gubernatorial election.
Mrs Adeola is the founder of Chadash Empowerment Foundation, and to commemorate 2026 International Widows’ Day, she gave out the items through the organisation’s annual Widows’ Empowerment Programme, which birthed in 2021, as part of efforts to promote economic independence.
The empowerment programme, held at the Ake Palace Amphitheatre in Abeokuta, Ogun State, brought together widows from across the state for a day of capacity building, entrepreneurship support and social inclusion.
As part of the initiative, widows who completed the foundation’s vocational training programme received business tools to help them establish or expand their enterprises. The tools distributed included sewing machines, grinding machines, hair dryers, makeup kits, deep freezers, and gas cookers. In addition, 2,000 widows received cash grants of N50,000 each to strengthen existing businesses, improve household income and enhance their economic resilience.
Mrs Adeola said the initiative reflects the organisation’s unwavering commitment to empowering widows through sustainable economic opportunities rather than one-time interventions.
According to her, empowering widows extends far beyond financial assistance, as providing practical skills, vocational tools and start-up capital equips them to build sustainable livelihoods, regain their confidence and become financially self-reliant.
“Seeing more than 3,000 widows gathered here today with renewed hope and confidence reminds us why we remain committed to restoring dignity, creating opportunities, and empowering vulnerable women to achieve financial independence.
“At the Chadash Empowerment Foundation, empowerment goes beyond giving; it is about equipping people with the skills, resources, and confidence to build sustainable livelihoods that will positively impact their families and communities,” the politician’s wife stated.
She urged beneficiaries to make productive use of the support provided by investing in viable businesses that generate sustainable income and improve their families’ welfare.
“The heartfelt testimonies we continue to receive from our beneficiaries reaffirm our mission. Their stories of renewed hope, restored confidence, and brighter futures inspire us to do even more. Together, we are transforming grief into growth, despair into hope, and challenges into opportunities,” Mrs Adeola stated.
Since its inception, the Chadash Empowerment Foundation has impacted more than 15,000 widows across Ogun State and the Federal Capital Territory through vocational training, entrepreneurship support, cash grants, and sustainable livelihood initiatives.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government will seek reparations from South Africa for Nigerians compelled to leave behind businesses and other assets as they voluntarily return home ahead of planned anti-immigrant protests.
Acting Nigerian High Commissioner to South Africa, Mr Alexander Ajayi, disclosed the plan on Tuesday during an appearance on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief, as another batch of evacuees was expected to arrive in Lagos under the government’s voluntary evacuation programme.
Mr Ajayi said the Nigerian government had instructed returnees to comprehensively document all businesses, vehicles, shops and other movable and immovable properties they were leaving behind to facilitate formal engagement with the South African authorities.
“I have asked them before they left yesterday to document very accurately those things they were leaving behind in terms of businesses, in terms of even cars, movable and immovable properties. We can now take it up with the South African government. That is the next step we are going to take.
“So, this repatriation will not end with just taking people to Nigeria. We are going to systematically follow up on the information given to us, and I told them to be very accurate with what they are going to give because we are going to work with the South African government to get to the exact locations of all these businesses, shops and properties and present them to the South African government for possible compensation because we will not allow the labour people have suffered to build over the years to just go down the drain or be taken over by people,” Mr Ajayi said.
According to him, Nigerian officials had already initiated discussions with South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Finance on the matter and would systematically verify the information provided by returnees before presenting claims for possible compensation.
He stressed that the evacuation exercise would not end with bringing Nigerians home, adding that the government was determined to ensure that years of investment and hard work by its citizens were not lost without redress.
The envoy also rejected claims that most Nigerians living in South Africa were undocumented, arguing that many entered the country legally but became victims of prolonged delays in the renewal of immigration documents due to administrative backlogs at the country’s Home Office.
He explained that the delays affected many foreign nationals, not only Nigerians, making it inaccurate to classify them as undocumented migrants.
Meanwhile, an Air Peace aircraft departed Nigeria on Monday to evacuate another group of Nigerians who voluntarily opted to return ahead of demonstrations planned by anti-immigration groups from June 30.
The federal government has continued its voluntary evacuation programme for Nigerians willing to leave South Africa as tensions over anti-immigrant protests persist.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government said it has completed the first section of 118-kilometre of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Highway, costing N257 billion, with the last section of 164-kilometre to be completed by November 2026.
The Minister of Works, Mr David Umahi, announced the development while briefing journalists after the Federal Executive Council meeting held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Monday.
According to him, President Bola Tinubu has approved 27 road projects valued at over N3.9 trillion across 15 states as part of the Federal Government’s drive to improve road infrastructure nationwide.
According to the minister, the approved projects span Adamawa, Benue, Cross River, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Niger, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Taraba, and Yobe states.
Mr Umahi said the council approved the re-award of the 409-kilometre dual carriageway project in Niger State under the tax credit scheme to businessman Aliko Dangote at a cost of N1.8 trillion.
“Other major approvals include N276 billion for the dualisation of the Ilorin-Ogbomoso Road; N265 billion for the reconstruction of the Iseyin-Eruwa-Agbesi Road linking Oyo and Kwara states; N217 billion for the dualisation of the old alignment from Ijaye through the Federal Government College to Ilorin Road with a spur to Akinmorin; and N116 billion for the 21-kilometre Abakaliki-Afikpo Road in Ebonyi State.
“The council also approved N110 billion for the Ogbomoso-Oko-Illupu Road in Oyo and Osun states; N104 billion for the rehabilitation of Sections One and Two of the Ilorin-Omorin-Ebe-Kabba-Obajana Road in Kwara and Kogi states; N98 billion for the construction of the 30-kilometre Idi-Araba-Ayede-Olodo Road in Oyo State; and N92 billion for the rehabilitation of the Baban-Lamba-Sharan Phase Two Road in Plateau State,” he said.
The minister stated that other approvals include N86 billion each for the reconstruction of the Enugu-Abakaliki Road with a flyover and the Adikpo-Ajayi-Tese-Akpa-Otukpo Road traversing Benue and Cross River states.
“Projects approved by the council further include N83 billion for the Jimeta-Mayo Belwa Road in Adamawa State; N82 billion for the rehabilitation of Igbeti Road in Oyo State; N74 billion for the construction of the Igbeti-Soro-Kishi Road in Oyo State; N71 billion for the 52-kilometre Dabban-Makina Road in Niger State; and N62.99 billion for the Tungo-Karamti Road with five bridges connecting Adamawa and Taraba states.
“The council also approved N58 billion for the rehabilitation of the Yola-Hong-Mubi Road Phase Two; N46 billion for the Amasiri-Okporojo Road; N34 billion for the 18-kilometre Ikere-Ekiti-Ijare Road linking Ekiti and Ondo states; N26 billion for a new flyover on the ongoing Trans-Sahara Road; N24.7 billion for the rehabilitation of the Kabba-Ifaki-Ado Ekiti Road linking Kogi and Ekiti states; and N21 billion for the construction of a flyover at Oko-Olowo Junction in Kwara State.
“Additional approvals include N15.7 billion for the construction of the Pacific Road linking Igbe Laara to Ikorodu in Lagos State; N15.5 billion for the 13-kilometre Badeku-Jaiye Road in Oyo State; N15.246 billion for Phase Two of the Yola-Fufore-Gurin Road project in Adamawa State, covering an additional 20 kilometres after the completion of the first 17-kilometre phase; and N15 billion as augmentation for the 32.2-kilometre Gashua Road project in Yobe State, which was originally awarded in 2022,” he stated.
Mr Umahi also said the council approved the full business case for the operation and maintenance concession of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and directed the commencement of reconstruction of failed sections along the Ibadan axis using concrete pavement.
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