Introduction
The Circular Exchange event is an annual gathering facilitated by Circular Lagos and the Circular Business Platform. The event aims to foster collaboration and idea exchange, raise awareness about the sector’s inherent value, and inspire innovators to explore potentials. Its inaugural edition took place in 2022, while the second edition occurred on February 1, 2024, with the theme ‘Reflect. Learn. Build.’ The Circular Exchange 2024 featured an Ecosystem Report, a Panel Discussion, a Circular Marketplace Exhibition, and a Learning Session. The overriding objective of the Circular Exchange 2024 event was to encourage Circular Procurement in Lagos and ultimately Nigeria. The event was supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Sterling Bank, Innovate UK-KTN, and Lagos Business School (LBS).
The Challenge:
In Lagos and other parts of Nigeria, Circular Procurement, that is, purchases made to support the transition to a Circular Economy, using products and services, is not widely practised. The most adopted means of procurement is linear procurement—produce, consume, and discard—which is against the idea of a circular economy that sources and produces materials that benefit the environment, economy, and people (social). The challenge is to use the Circular Exchange event to nurture people and organisations to begin adopting circular procurement processes.
Solution
To tackle the challenge above, CEIP and its partners put together the Circular Exchange featuring three components:
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Reflect:
This focused on celebrating the successes of building the circular ecosystem in the previous year by key stakeholders in the space as well as identifying hurdles that they encountered to highlight the work needed to build the market for circular businesses in Nigeria. This Ecosystem Report was delivered through a documentary featuring notable stakeholders such as GIZ, NCIC, RAN, UNILAG, among others, sharing insights into their space. -
Learn:
The Learn component spotlighted Circular Business Platform and its partners' research inventory, ranging from the Snap Survey How-to Guide by Circular Business Platform, Circular Economy Metrics by Footprints Africa, Insights on Agro-Waste by Lagos Business School, Sustainable Construction by Innovate UK KTN I &2, Circular Business Models by Jonathan Ikeolumba, Finance & Sustainability Consultant Doctoral Researcher on Sustainability & Finance, EDC, Investment paper by CBP, Policy Implementation by Circular Business Platform, and Advancing a Circular Economy for Plastics in Nigeria by Nigeria National Plastic Action Partnership. The aim was for stakeholders to glean from the in-depth and resourceful knowledge from these documents as a guide in implementing Circular Business Initiatives. A panel discussion on the topic: Market Debrief—How can we use Circular Procurement tools to support local innovation and entrepreneurship? was discussed to strengthen the learning session on the need for circular procurement. Besides the D-day Learn theme, a pre-campaign blog post on circular procurement was published on the CBP website, covering topics such as Principles of Circular Procurement, Individual Choices and Circular Procurement, Circular Procurement in Action, and Procuring Raw Materials for Circular Businesses. -
Build:
The Circular Marketplace Exhibition was featured during the Circular Exchange event. This entailed existing circular businesses exhibiting and selling their products to guests. To encourage circular procurement, all guests were given a chip worth three thousand naira each to patronise the circular brands. The goal of the Circular Marketplace Exhibition was to build circular business opportunities in Nigeria based on the experiences of the Circular Business Platform and its partners in 2023. Awards were presented to three outstanding Circular brands in the categories of Creativity in Marketing Award (won by Franuel Eco Furniture), Top Sales Performance Award (won by Lady Bamboo), and Customer Centricity Award (won by Azach Ng).
Results
Enriched Participation
The Circular Exchange event witnessed robust active participation from stakeholders, with a total of 7,000 participants from various organisations in the Circular Economy space.
Increased Awareness on Circular Procurement
Through the Circular Marketplace Exhibition, more awareness was created on circular procurement. Over 17 Circular Businesses showed up for the exhibition, and 200 chips, amounting to 600,000 Naira, were spent procuring circular products by guests.
Strengthened Collaboration
The Circular Exchange event fostered and enhanced relationships among partners in the industry. This included media publicity from Africa Climate Story, GZI's intent to collaborate with CBP on content creation about aluminium cans, and media relations from top media firms in the country.
Recognition
The awards presented to the three top-performing Circular Brands from the Circular Marketplace Exhibition stand as a monumental reference to the efforts of these businesses in fostering Circular products in Nigeria.
In Their Own Words:
Conclusion
The Circular Exchange event played a significant role in propelling conversations, fostering partnerships, and acknowledging the transformative potential of circular procurement and practices in Nigeria. Through the event, many individuals and organisations are inspired to adopt circular business models, serving efforts to grow and develop the Nigerian Circular Economy Industry.