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 Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has elected Mrs Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), as its next president after she polled the most votes when voting officially ended on Sunday morning.
Mrs Badejo-Okusanya, the only female among the three presidential candidates, polled 12,317 votes to emerge the winner of the election, which was held through electronic voting for 24 hours, from 7:35 am on Saturday to 7:34 am on Sunday.
She defeated her two challengers, polling 47.18 per cent of the 26,106 ballots cast in the presidential election, based on the final tally. Her closest challenger, Mr Lateef Akangbe (SAN), garnered 7,934 votes, representing 30.39 per cent of the total votes cast, while the third candidate, Mr Olumuyiwa Akinboro (SAN), polled 5,855 votes, representing 22.43 per cent, to emerge third in the contest.
The Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA) Chairman disclosed that a total of 26,106 votes were recorded for the highly disputed presidential election.
With her victory, Mrs Badejo-Okusanya will become the 33rd President of the legal association, successfully re-enacting a 34-year-old history as the second female to lead the NBA since its formation in 1933.
Meanwhile, Mr Afam Okeke was elected General Secretary of the legal body, having polled a total of 8,478 votes to defeat his opponents.
All the elected officials will be in office for two years, spanning 2026 to 2028.
The NBA president-elect was absent when the results of the election were announced at the NBA headquarters in Abuja. A member of her campaign team, Mr Aminu Gadanya (SAN), revealed that she had a flight delay and declared her resolve to extend a “handshake of friendship” to all the aggrieved candidates.
In his remarks after the results were announced, the outgoing President of the NBA, Mr Afam Osigwe (SAN), noted that the election faced several challenges, including a cyberattack that almost derailed the electoral process.
“Many went to great lengths to truncate the electoral process. They maligned the process with their utterances, but we held firm. Every effort to derail the process failed,” Mr Osigwe stated.
He urged the winners to be magnanimous in victory, warning that they should celebrate moderately.
“This is a trying time for the Bar. Many people may still go to great lengths to rubbish the association. However, this is a time for healing. At the end of the day, let the Bar be the winner,” he added.
He said the ECNBA would carry out an in-depth analysis, especially of the challenges encountered, so as to come up with recommendations that will engender greater confidence in the association’s electoral process.
“The cyberattack shows that we must do more, not only for data protection, but to protect our electoral integrity. We must insulate our electoral process from such activities.
“Someday the story will be told of how the ICT system had to be rebuilt and moved to a safer server to ensure that the election was held.
“The Bar must always protect its independence and eternally determine the course of its electoral process,” the outgoing NBA President added.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Over 50 skilled technicians drawn from various states across the South-West region of Nigeria converged on Ibadan, Oyo State, on Friday for a comprehensive technical and sensitisation training programme for set-top box installers and associated reception equipment technicians.
This training was organised by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) in partnership with the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT) to guarantee a smooth, efficient, and error-free rollout of Nigeria’s digital broadcasting migration.
Nigeria’s journey toward digital terrestrial television has spanned nearly two decades. The country formally adopted the digital switchover policy in 2008 in line with the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) 2006 global mandate, which set a June 2015 deadline for member states.
Successive missed targets in 2017 and beyond stemmed from funding constraints, policy inconsistencies, infrastructure gaps, and logistical challenges. While pilot projects were implemented in Plateau, Lagos, Kano, Enugu, Kwara, Osun, Kaduna, and the Federal Capital Territory, nationwide coverage remained a distant goal.
After substantial public investment exceeding N60 billion with limited results, the federal government unveiled a bold, renewed strategy in 2025 titled The Big Picture on June 17, 2026, with a firm analogue switch-off date set for December 31, 2028.
The new framework introduces a hybrid broadcasting model that intelligently combines Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite delivery via NIGCOMSAT-1R, and Internet Protocol (IP)-based distribution.
By prioritising satellite technology, Nigeria leverages its sovereign satellite assets to significantly reduce dependence on expensive terrestrial transmission infrastructure. This approach is projected to accelerate digital television rollout by over 65 per cent while delivering near-instantaneous national coverage.
The Head of the Digital Switchover (DSO) unit and Deputy Director of Public Affairs at the NBC, Mrs Clementine Usman-Wamba, noted that the Ibadan session is the first of many planned across Nigeria’s geopolitical zones.
The Ibadan training directly addresses the technical demands of this hybrid ecosystem. Installers will be equipped with skills in satellite dish alignment for DTH, terrestrial antenna optimisation for DTT signals, and the configuration of hybrid reception devices.
Given the significant departure from analogue systems and earlier pilots, this sensitisation is essential to minimise installation errors, reduce service disruptions, and ensure that even households in rural and underserved communities can enjoy seamless access to superior digital broadcasts.
The FreeTV platform, built on open-standard DVB-S2 technology, will offer up to 100 free-to-air high-definition channels to an estimated 40 million television households across the country.
For terrestrial reception, Nigeria has adopted the advanced DVB-T2 standard with MPEG-4 AVC compression, which supports up to 20 channels per frequency—far more efficient than previous systems.
Consumers can access the service using affordable DVB-S2-compatible set-top boxes (priced between N15,000 and N25,000) or smart TVs with built-in DVB-T2 digital tuners.
Beyond technical excellence, the DSO represents a major national economic transformation project. The reallocation of broadcast spectrum (the “digital dividend”) will unlock new opportunities in telecommunications and broadband services. The advertising market is projected to expand by up to N605.2 billion, while local manufacturing and assembly of reception equipment is expected to generate over 20,000 jobs.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has introduced the Blue Economy Accelerator Programme, a strategic initiative to identify, nurture, and accelerate innovative startups that will contribute to the sustainable growth of Nigeria’s marine and blue economy.
The Blue Economy Accelerator Programme is aimed at attracting young, vibrant minds with innovative ideas capable of transforming Nigeria’s maritime ecosystem.
The Director-General of NIMASA, Mr Dayo Mobereola, said that through the initiative, participants will receive structured business development support, industry mentorship, and technical guidance to convert promising concepts into viable ventures that address critical challenges and opportunities within the blue economy.
“The programme reflects NIMASA’s commitment to supporting the implementation of the vision of the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy in unlocking the immense potential of the blue economy by empowering young innovators, entrepreneurs, and technology-driven enterprises. We at NIMASA want to provide a platform for investors to identify young talents and invest in them,” he said.
The NIMASA DG commended the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Mr Adegboyega Oyetola, for codifying the Marine and Blue Economy Policy as a clear roadmap for the sector’s development and also urged young Nigerians to embrace the programme, which has the potential to transform raw talents into big investments in the maritime sector.
Applications are open to startups and innovators developing solutions across several strategic sectors, including marine waste management and the blue circular economy; aquaculture And sustainable fisheries; maritime technology and logistics innovation; ocean energy including wave, tidal, and offshore renewable energy; marine tourism and coastal recreation; marine biotechnology such as, ocean data and analytics; green Shipping, including vessel decarbonization; smart port solutions; autonomous marine vehicles; biofouling prevention technologies; and coastal resilience through nature-based coastal defence solutions.
The first phase of the programme is expected to attract a minimum of 150 high-quality applications from within and outside the country, provided they are Nigerian citizens.
