The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Adeniyi Adebayo has inaugurated a standing committee on the setting up of centralised metal scrap dump sites in all the states and in Abuja.
This is contained in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja by Mr Ifedayo Sayo, the minister’s Special Adviser on media.
According to the statement, members of the committee are critical stakeholders in the iron and steel sector, including the National Association of Scraps and Waste Dealers Employers of Nigeria (NASWDEN).
It is chaired by the Director, Industrial Development Department of the Ministry, Mr Adewale Bakare.
Inaugurating the committee, the Minister identified the iron and steel sector as critical to the industrialisation of the nation’s economy.
Adebayo assured that the Federal Government hoped to leverage on the sector to attain the desired objective of industrialisation in the medium to long term.
“On this basis, my ministry finds it quite expedient to come up with appropriate mechanisms that will ensure sanity, growth and development of the iron and steel sector value chain, of which scrap and waste resources management is of paramount importance,” he said.
Adebayo explained that the project would create the spread of industrialisation across the country, with the attendant benefits in employment, infrastructural development and income generation, distribution and increase in Gross Domestic Products (GDP).
According to him, the dump sites when established will solve the challenges of unregulated dumping and scavenging of metal scrap that has led to vandalising government and private properties by hoodlums.
“Others are unsorted and unclassified metal scrap types as well as uncoordinated or unified pricing of metal scrap,” he said.
The terms of reference of the committee include to Interface with the 36 state governments for land allocation for the dump sites.
“Come up with blueprint for the operations of the centralised scraps dump sites, initiate measures that will eliminate smuggling and exportation of metal scraps and create a framework for sensitising local metal scavengers on the need to embrace the system of centralised scrap dump sites.
“Others are to explore funding options for the project and set up a framework for flagship dumping sites in each state of the six geo-political zones of the country on a pilot basis,” the minister said.
Chairman of the committee, Bakare, assured the Minister of the committee’s readiness to work assiduously to ensure the success of the assignment.
