The Federal Government, on Thursday, unveiled an innovative digital platform designed to formalise the country’s waste value chain by connecting waste generators, collectors, aggregators, recyclers, and end-users in a transparent and traceable system.

The platform was launched at a sensitisation workshop and the unveiling of the National Waste Marketplace Programme, themed “Digitising and formalising the circular economy through technology,” in Abuja.

The initiative, organised by the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency in collaboration with Recycle Stack Limited, brought together stakeholders from across the waste management and recycling sectors to discuss strategies for advancing a circular economy in Nigeria.

By leveraging technology, the platform aims to create economic linkages across the recycling ecosystem while promoting environmental compliance, material recovery, and sustainable production and consumption patterns.

The platform seeks to formalise and scale the circular economy with a vision to empower 10 million Nigerians by 2035.

Speaking at the event, the Minister of Environment, Balarabe Lawal, highlighted that Nigeria faces a complex waste management challenge, with millions of tonnes of recyclable materials lost to indiscriminate disposal each year, harming the environment, public health, and economic efficiency.

Lawal, who was represented by one of the directors in the Department of Pollution Control and Environmental Health at the ministry, Yunus Abdulganiyu said, “This programme is therefore an apt opportunity for closing the capacity gap by advancing circular economy principles in the national waste management system and modernising the sector’s operational standards, in which waste materials are valorized, reused, repurposed, and reincorporated into production cycles. This approach mitigates the linearity of conventional waste while ensuring traceability and transparency of transactions.