World Bank earmarks N1.2bn to eradicate harmful chemicals in Nigeria

World Bank Task Team leader on PCBs Project Mr. Joseph Akpokodje announced this in Abuja at the official flag off of the awareness campaign and road-show for communicating the hazards of PCBs.
PCBs are man-made organic chemicals known as chlorinated hydrocarbons.
They were domestically manufactured from 1929 until their manufacture was banned in 1979 in the United States. They can be found in transformers and capacitors, other electrical equipment including voltage regulators, switches, bushings, and electromagnets, oil used in motors and hydraulic systems etc.
Akpokodje said that so far, the sum of $2.27 million has been approved for the takeoff of the campaign.
The bank is focusing on the electrical sector.
The project started in 2012 and is expected to end in 2015.
Minister of Environment Mrs. Laurentia L. Mallam said PCBs have been identified by United Nations Environment Programme as highly toxic.
She noted that Nigeria was never known to produce PCBs but imported a good deal of it through shipment of transformers, capacitors, ballasts, paint and hydraulic fluid additives in the late 1940s and early 1980s.
“The consequence of this action has left our country with a considerable quantity of PCBs that must be managed,” she said.
The minister who was represented by Yomi Ladapo, Director Planning, Research and Statistic said Nigeria was part of the Stockholm Convention which requires all parties to eliminate the use of PCB containing equipment by 2025 and to make liquid PCBs and equipment contaminated with PCBs subject to environmentally sound waste management not later than 2028.
The ‘Nigeria PCBs Management Project’ is being implemented by the Federal Ministry of Environment in collaboration with Global Environment Facility (GEF) and World Bank to comply with national obligations and protect Nigerians from adverse effects of PCBs.
Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mrs. Mede Nana Fatimah, said the project management unit has carried out several activities including development of a national policy framework on PCBs and the technical and administrative guidelines.