Nigeria close to full implementation of EPRP in electronics sector

Director General of the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) Prof Aliyu Jauro has said Nigeria is edging closer to the full implementation of the Extended Producer Responsibility Programme (EPRP) in the electronics sector.

Speaking at a meeting of the E-waste Producers’ Responsibility Organisation of Nigeria (EPRON) to fine tune strategies for implementing the EPR in the sector, Prof Jauro said the move was in line with the Federal Government’s objectives to actualize the Private Public Partnership (PPP) mantra in driving the economy.

He noted that having large volume of waste in the electronics sector was as much a challenge in a technologically driven world as it was laudable in the efforts to stem the tide.

While welcoming the development and assuring on his support to EPRON, especially in areas like awareness creation, which he admitted was key to the overall success of the programme, Prof Jauro expressed delight that progress was at last being made in the country.

In his remarks, EPRON Chairman Dr Oladimeji Oresanya commended the move saying, “We can now tell the global community that Nigeria is fully ready.”

The EPRON Programme was put in place by NESREA to institute environmentally sound management of waste in the country by ensuring that producers take responsibility for the entire life cycle of their products.

The EPRON supports the circular economy model which is globally accepted as a sustainable consumption and production pattern where products at the end of their life are not considered waste but rather, become secondary raw materials for some other products.

It was also noted that recently, Nigeria received grant from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) for the take-off of the “Project on Circular Economy Approaches in the Electronics Sector. The GEF project would support the activities of EPRON thereby pushing Nigeria into a zero-waste regime in the electronics sector.