Circular Economy Strategy Week

Background

The Circular Economy Strategy Week was organised following the Circular Economy Roadmap session held on February 20, 2024, to offer solutions and policy strategies to tackle issues in the Circular Economy hindering the effectiveness of the system. The purpose of the Circular Economy Strategy Week was to continue building upon the work carried out within Lagos State and Nigeria to accelerate the Circular Economy agenda through strategic coordination and identify areas where Dutch-Nigerian partnerships can create the most value in building and scaling circular business models in Nigeria. The event was organised by the Circular Business Platform and the Netherlands Government, led by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency.

The Challenge:

Nigeria has a Circular Economy Roadmap plan which identifies seven sectors—agriculture, waste, energy, construction, water, mining & quarrying, and industry—as key propellers to circularity in the economy. However, the Nigerian Circular Economy Roadmap lacks a clear, identifiable action plan to achieve the goals contained in the Roadmap. Without clear-cut goals, the Roadmap would remain dormant. The Circular Economy Strategy Week event sought to address this by providing circular strategies to facilitate the creation and improvement of circular businesses, initiatives, regulations, policies, enterprises, and markets in four selected sectors: Agriculture, E-waste, Waste Management, and Waste to Energy.

Solution

Strategy Ideation:
To develop profound circular strategies to propel and improve circular business in Nigeria, the Circular Economy Strategy Week lasted for four days (March 25-28). The CESW featured a three-day breakout session on the Agriculture, E-waste, Waste Management, and Waste to Energy sectors consecutively. The breakout sessions on these four sectors generated circular strategies to drive circular business actions and improvement, bearing in mind the peculiar strengths, threats, weaknesses, and opportunities in each sector. The e-waste and agriculture teams had a field trip to Eterra Technologies in Abule-Ado and to the Agrofood Nigeria Trade Show event at Landmark respectively for participants to witness real-time situations in the sectors.
Visibility, Patronage, and Collaboration for Circular Business:
The CESW featured a tour of the Nigerian Circular Business Models, creating visibility and possible patronage and collaboration opportunities for more than ten circular businesses present during the event. Circular businesses had the opportunity to interact, exhibit, and network with potential customers at the event.
Circular Knowledge, Learning and Impact:
To enhance participation, credibility, exchange of circular ideas, quality learning, and robust impact, representatives of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency and international circular firms, including Closing the Loop and CIRCO, made presentations geared towards fostering an enhanced circular economy in Nigeria through collaboration with the Dutch government and circular companies.
Practical Solution for Circular Lagos:
A community mural activity took place during the event where guests were grouped and tasked to express their circular aspirations for Lagos State on canvas. The goal of this activity was for guests to collaboratively create and share pragmatic circular solutions to transform Lagos State into a more circular state.
Strengthening Affinity in the Industry:
Among other industries in the Circular Economy, the fashion and plastic industries are at the forefront of driving circular solutions in Nigeria. To strengthen the existing circular affinity, a networking dinner was held for both industries. These were the Circular Textile and Fashion Networking Session for the fashion industry and Building an Innovation Ecosystem for Plastics.

Results

Strategic Documents

Each of the sectors (agriculture, E-waste, Waste Management, and Waste to Energy) identified now has a document enumerating possible solutions to guide future actions and implementations necessary for enhanced circular business in their respective industries.

Ongoing Conversations and Implementations

The CESW event is driving future conversations and implementations for the Nigerian Circular Economy. For instance, the CBP team participated and partnered in delivering at the EkoWaste Summit 2024 event.

In Their Own Words:

The Netherlands and Lagos are collaborating on circular economy and an event like this provides an opportunity for both countries to learn from each other, that is the experience of circular economy in the Netherlands and the experience of circular economy in Lagos. If you look at the numbers and sectors, Nigeria is a lot more circular than the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, we have a whole system of recycling and making use of our waste but they produce too much waste to start with. In Nigeria, the production of waste per person is not that much but look at a city like Lagos where we have 20 million people. Obviously, if you aggregate, you end up with landfills that we are seeing.

Michel Deelen Consul General of the Netherlands, Lagos

I am excited to be part of the Circular Economy Strategy Week because it is very important for us to have various stakeholders and players in the value chain come together to strategize on the way forward.

Agharese (Arese) Lucia Onaghise Executive Director, Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance (FBRA)

If we need to connect with people, then we need to segment the market. We need to curate our understanding and knowledge. Our nuance, messaging, and narrative have to be properly skewed so that people can see not only the effects of the change in climate with regards to their health and wellbeing but also addressing managing waste as a resource and benefiting from it as a household.

Titi Oshodi Special Adviser to the Lagos State on Climate Change and Circular Economy (OCCE, Lagos)

We believe that a circular economy is the only way forward. We believe it is the business opportunity of the century and why we work very hard in the Netherlands to make the Netherlands a circular island, we realised it doesn't make sense that the rest of the world goes down the drain. We need to reach out, work on global research, flow on trades, and create mutual business opportunities. That's the only way forward to fight great societal challenges. Why Nigeria? Why Lagos? Lagos is the economic heart of Nigeria. Nigeria is the economic powerhouse in Africa so if Nigeria doesn’t have a future, we have no future.

Freek Van Eijk Director, Holland Circular Hotspot

We are hoping that in the future we will be able to look back and see that we have achieved a lot with regards to circular economy and establishing sustainable practices, changing the behaviour of people and making them feel more accountable and responsible towards plastic and other types of waste.

Daniel Oderinde Executive Manager, Nigeria National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP)

Conclusion

The Circular Economy Strategy Week successfully produced circular strategies by different stakeholders in the industry to serve as a compass towards establishing a flourishing Circular Economy for Lagos and ultimately Nigeria. Weeks after taking place, the event continues to influence conversations, ideas, collaboration, networking, and partnerships needed to contribute to the adoption and practice of circularity in the Nigerian economy. The Dutch government and the Circular Business Platform, who are the conveners of the event, remain resolute towards achieving the objectives of the event.