Stakeholders in Lagos’ waste management sector have called for the establishment of a standalone Ministry of Waste Resources to drive reforms, attract investment and strengthen environmental governance.
A summary of the meeting’s proceedings and recommendations was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday by Mr Philips Obuesi, President and Chief Executive Officer of SWEEP Foundation NG and convener of the Lagos Waste Forum.
According to the summary, the stakeholders made the call at a Lagos Waste Governance Reform meeting on Thursday, proposing the ministry as part of policy recommendations for the incoming state administration in 2027.
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The recommendations also covered professional leadership, household waste separation, integration of informal waste workers and improved accountability across Lagos’ waste management system.
The summary indicated that the Lagos Waste Forum was tasked with consolidating citizens’ and industry stakeholders’ recommendations into a policy brief for presentation to the incoming governor.
The proposed document is expected to reflect the concerns of residents, waste generators, recycling businesses, waste pickers and other operators across the waste value chain.
On institutional reform, the stakeholders proposed a dedicated ministry headed by a cabinet level commissioner to coordinate policies that would transform discarded materials into economic resources.
They also advocated appointing experienced waste management professionals to lead the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), with technical competence guiding appointments.
The recommendations further called for separating LAWMA’s regulatory responsibilities from waste collection operations to strengthen oversight and improve service delivery.
The stakeholders also identified the prevailing collection-and-dumping approach as inadequate, advocating a shift towards source separation, recycling, processing and local resource recovery.
They proposed household incentives for waste separation and modular processing plants across local governments to encourage local value addition.
On stakeholder inclusion, the recommendations called for integrating informal waste pickers into formal waste management arrangements, recognising their contributions to recycling and livelihoods.
They also advocated stronger partnerships between private sector participation (PSP) operators and informal collectors, alongside improved occupational protection and community-based waste education.
The summary identified outdated waste collection data as a major obstacle to effective planning, monitoring and enforcement.
To address this, stakeholders recommended street-level data collection, local government performance comparisons and stronger accountability in public spending across the waste value chain.
They also identified registration and evacuation-access challenges as infrastructure gaps requiring attention to improve compliance and enforcement.
The Lagos Waste Forum was further tasked with ensuring women’s perspectives were adequately represented in the proposed policy brief.
Other recommendations included financial incentives for household waste separation, stronger PSP monitoring and community education in local languages.
The proposals build on discussions at the sixth Lagos Waste Forum in 2025, which advocated establishing a standalone Ministry of Waste Resources.
The forum promotes policies that position waste as an economic resource through collaboration among government, industry operators and environmental stakeholders.
The proposed reforms seek to reposition Lagos’ waste sector from conventional refuse collection and disposal towards an inclusive circular economy driven by investment, innovation and resource recovery.
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