Professor Lawrence Ikechukwu Ezemonye, the Vice Chancellor of the Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, has championed the cause of converting waste to wealth in Nigeria.
He stated that “despite efforts to improve waste management systems, inadequate infrastructure and limited recycling facilities pose significant challenges in Nigeria.”
He asserted that addressing the waste crises requires comprehensive strategies, innovative solutions and collective efforts.
Professor Ezemonye was speaking on the occasion of the 2nd Distinguished Alumnus Lecture Series of the Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Benin, with the topic “A case of waste valorization: Transition from Metaphor to Reality” held inside the Akin Deko Auditorium of the Ugbowo Campus of the University.
Some of the benefits of waste management that he listed include clean energy, climate change mitigation and green business and employment opportunities.
On the way forward, he advocated among others strengthening waste management infrastructure; enacting and enforcing effective policies and collaboration and partnership.
Professor Jerry Orhue, Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences of the University of Benin, in a chat with reporters at the end of the lecture stated that “the world has moved from the times and era when you just generate waste and leave them there as waste.
“This is now the time you convert your waste into wealth. What the distinguished lecturer has talked about is a process of bringing out value out of waste and not just in theory but in practical.”
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