L-R Senator Foster Ogola, Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Capital Markets; Mr. Roosevelt Ogbonna, Group Deputy MD, Access Bank PLC; Dr. Evans Osano, Director, Capital Markets Development, Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Africa; Ms. Laure Beaufils, British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria; Mallam Ibrahim Usman Jibril, Minister of State For Environment, Federal Government of Nigeria; Mr. Bola Onadele. Koko, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange; Ms. Justine Leigh-Bell, Director of Market Development, Climate Bonds Initiative; Mr. Bolaji Balogun, Chairman, FMDQ Debt Capital Market Development Project 2020/25; Mr. Oladele Afolabi, Director, Portfolio Management, Debt Management Office Nigeria; Mr. Akinyemi Ashade, Commissioner for Finance, Lagos State Government during the launch of Nigerian Green Bond Market Development Programme.

THE Minister of State for Environment, Alhaji Ibrahim Jibril, has advised food and beverages companies as well as waste management stakeholders to implement the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy.

Jibril gave the advice on Friday when a team of officials from Food and Beverages Companies Alliance and some waste management stakeholders paid him a visit call in Abuja.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that in the field of waste management, EPR is a strategy designed to promote the integration of environmental costs, associated with goods throughout their life cycles, into the market price of the products.

The minister said that the implementation of EPR would go a long way in supporting efforts to clean the environment and make it pollution free.

Jibril urged food and beverages companies to set aside a certain percentage of their profits for a campaign to sensitise Nigerians to the need to collect and recycle plastics and plastic bottles.

“Part of what I want you (companies) to be doing is to set aside a portion of your profit for public sensitisation.

“You need to also sensitise your workers to form a team to take it upon themselves as part of your social corporate responsibility to clean the environment to make it free of pollution,’’ he said.

The minister urged the companies to encourage the recycling of plastic bottles and devise strategies that would motivate consumers to return the used bottles for recycling.

According to him, there is need for the organised private sector to actively support the current efforts to beat plastic pollution.

Jibril, who said that plastics were not degradable, said that they remained in the land, rivers and ocean for ages, thereby harming marine life.

He urged the producers of plastic bottles to support the government’s efforts to create awareness on how human actions were causing plastic pollution and harming the environment.

Mr Clem Ugorji, the Director, Public Affairs and Communications, West Africa Business Unit, Coca-Cola Nigeria, said that five firms constituted the alliance.

Ugorji said that members of the alliance were Coca-Cola Nigeria, Nigerian Bottling Company, Nestle Nigeria, Nigerian Breweries and Seven Up Bottling Company.

He, however, said that other food and beverages companies had indicated their interest to join the alliance.

According to him, the alliance is working to create a framework that will ensure effective collection and recycling of bottles.

Ugorji said that the alliance was working to become EPR-compliant, while making it mandatory for all food and beverages companies to discharge their social corporate responsibility.

Prof. Oladele Osibanjo, the National President, Waste Management Society of Nigeria, said that the society was collaborating with the alliance to organise a workshop to proffer solutions to the menace of plastic pollution in the country.

Osibanjo, who said that the workshop would be held in Lagos, said that it would attract relevant stakeholders in the waste management sector. (NAN)