Technical Assistance to Develop Nigeria’s Circular Economy Roadmap

The development of the circular economy in the Nigerian context has received significant attention in the past 5 years. A report funded by the European Commission that investigated the status quo of circular economy in the country as well as a scoping study that evaluated the opportunity for the development of circular economy across various economic sectors constituted an important background for subsequent studies, research and project development.

The circular economy action plan that was developed for the Federal Ministry of Environment with support from the EU Delegation to Nigeria, was based on these initial studies which already highlighted priority areas (agriculture, forestry and other land uses; services including waste and water; energy; industrial processes and product use including construction and fashion and textiles) and suggested low-hanging fruits and opportunities for the transition to a circular economy.

The project recognised the existing baseline and conducted additional research and consultation with stakeholders to obtain an updated perspective of the development of the circular economy within the sectors, as there have been significant drivers over a short period of time supported by newer policies such as the Solid Waste Management Policy and Plastic Waste Management policy, both of which included circular economy principles in context.

The resulting action plan therefore included a list of goals and corresponding actions for the agri-food, energy and waste sectors and cross-cutting themes with an overview of a governance structure and recommendations for finance and regulatory alignment. With a list of indices, the action plan provides a guide for monitoring and evaluation of the implementation process. This action plan serves as the initial steps for the circular transition in Nigeria with the initial three sectors and indicates the need for expansion across all other sectors.

The project is funded by Switch2Green Facility / European Delegation to the Nigeria and ECOWAS.