THE Director-General, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Prof. Innocent Barikor, has said that efforts must be geared towards promoting circular economy because of the strategic economic opportunity it could provide to position Nigerian industries at the forefront of Africa’s sustainable industrial revolution
Speaking at a two-day workshop on Circular Economy in Industries for Environment Sustainability organized by NESREA in collaboration with Accappocco (Global Services Nigeria Limited in Lagos, Barikor, represented by the Agency’s Lagos Liaison Director, Dr. Jonay Dayal, said: “We recognise that lasting change emerges from partnerships, innovation and shared commitment.”
He reminded the industry leaders that they were the architects of the transformation and that revenue streams from waste colonization, enhanced plant repositions, and access to emerging grain and markets.
Barikor described the workshop as a strategic economic opportunity that could position Nigerian industries at the forefront of Africa’s sustainable industrial revolution.
The Convener, Dr. Valentine Okpone Ottis, said his organisation’s collaboration with the government on circular economies and how wastes could become wealth in the hands of the producers was necessary.
Ottis said that in the case of safety measures, there was supposed to be advocacy at the public scene with remark that at the industrial space, the government was trying because there are trainings with enforcement on companies to latch on.
One of the facilitators, Prof. John Adebayo Oyedepo of Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, said the environment belonged to all of us and the onus laid on everyone to take environmental stewardship very important and that we should do things that will ensure safety.
Executive Director, HSE/Industrial Relations, Drugfield Pharmaceutical Ltd. Emmanuel Afolayan, said that the government should be passionate about the life of the people and therefore, put in place a good regulation that would guarantee safety at work and every where, while ensuring the “regulations and the policies are effectively policed.”
