By Hosea Parah
Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau seek Stronger Waste Management Systems
Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau have called for stronger laws, institutions and funding mechanisms to tackle the growing waste management crisis in Africa and support the transition to a circular economy.
The call was made at the Final Regional Closing Workshop on the ‘Environmentally sounder and safer waste management frameworks in Africa’ project, held in Abuja.
The event brought together policymakers, regulators, development partners and representatives of the participating countries to examine the project’s findings and recommendations.
The workshop was hosted by the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), following pilot programmes launched in Abuja in November 2025 under a United Nations Development Account-funded initiative led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in collaboration with other UN agencies.
The project focused on Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau, with the objective of improving national and regional systems for environmentally sound and safer waste management.
Speaking at the opening, NESREA Director-General, Professor Innocent Barikor, described the initiative as an important step towards addressing Africa’s persistent waste management problems.
Barikor said the workshop would enable stakeholders to validate the project’s findings and legislative recommendations while developing practical strategies for implementation, financing and long-term sustainability.
He noted that “waste management remained one of Africa’s major environmental and developmental challenges, with inadequate infrastructure, insufficient funding and limited public awareness continuing to undermine effective waste management in many countries.”
According to him, the recommendations from the initiative would strengthen legal and institutional structures while also improving the recognition and protection of informal waste workers.
“Together we shall produce a set of concrete post-project implementation and sustainability roadmaps that will inform policy and legislative reforms, strengthen institutional capacity, ensure gender inclusion, protect the rights of children and improve overall waste management outcomes,” he said.
Barikor said the project was consistent with Nigeria’s efforts to promote a circular economy and efficient use of resources, noting that effective waste management could support economic development, social wellbeing and environmental protection.
He urged participants to contribute actively to the discussions and produce recommendations capable of turning the project’s findings into lasting action.
Representing the Sierra Leonean government, Deputy Minister of Environment, Mrs Yeama-Mimi Sobba-Stephens, described the workshop as an opportunity to assess the work carried out under the project and establish how its gains could be sustained.
She thanked UNEP for its technical support and commended the Nigerian government and NESREA for hosting the regional event.
The deputy minister said the project was especially relevant to Sierra Leone, where urbanisation, population growth, changing patterns of consumption and inadequate infrastructure continue to place pressure on waste management services in Freetown and other municipalities.
According to her, “the project had enabled Sierra Leone to examine waste-management challenges as part of an integrated waste-governance system.”
She said Sierra Leone had identified the need for a comprehensive and harmonised legal framework covering waste prevention, reduction, reuse, recycling, recovery and environmentally sound disposal.
Such a system, she explained, would help African countries move from approaches centred largely on collection and dumping towards circular economies that keep materials in productive use for longer periods.
She also highlighted the contribution of informal waste workers to collection, sorting, recycling and community sanitation, saying many of them still lacked adequate recognition, protective equipment, occupational safety measures and social protection.
Sobba-Stephens called on UNEP and other regional partners to sustain technical cooperation, peer learning and resource mobilisation to support implementation.
UNEP Law Division Legal Specialist, Valentina Ricca, said the project was designed to help participating countries strengthen their waste management systems while addressing the challenges confronting informal workers.
“The project, which began in 2023 and is being concluded this year, was implemented by UNEP’s Law Division in partnership with the UN-Habitat waste management team, with a focus on Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.”
Ricca said the initiative was developed following requests from the three countries through their national focal points under UNEP’s Fifth Montevideo Environmental Law Programme.
She said assessments undertaken during the project showed that waste management laws and systems in several African countries were yet to fully reflect integrated solid waste management principles, including waste prevention, recycling, composting and environmentally sound disposal.
According to her, the project adopted a three-stage approach involving legal and institutional assessments, stakeholder consultations and the development of practical reform proposals.
Government agencies, local authorities, academia, civil society organisations, private-sector representatives and informal waste workers participated in the consultations and validation exercises.
Representing the Minister of Environment, Mrs Adeola Omotunde, said the conclusion of the project should be regarded as the beginning of the implementation process rather than its end.
She said the ministry looked forward to closer collaboration with NESREA and other stakeholders to improve compliance, protect informal waste workers and ensure their participation in the waste management value chain.
“These initiatives are essential for improving waste management practices, strengthening environmental compliance, and delivering tangible benefits to communities across Nigeria.” She said
The workshop therefore marked both the conclusion of the regional initiative and the start of efforts to implement its recommendations.
As Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau begin translating the proposals into national policies, legislation and practical systems, participants expressed optimism that stronger cooperation would contribute to cleaner communities, better public health, improved livelihoods and a more sustainable African economy.