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Pollution Control 2020: Green entrepreneurial opportunities in waste management for sustainable economic growth in Africa - Benjamin Anabaraonye - Benjy Poetry and Music Global Concepts

Benjamin Anabaraonye1, Beatrice.O.Ewa2 and Precious.C.Anthony3 

Climate change is one of the global issues which we must of necessity tackle with urgency to ensure sustainable economic growth and development in Africa. Climate change, global warming and other related environmental challenges presently pose as a threat to sustainable economic growth in Africa. However, these environmental challenges have also created opportunities for green entrepreneurship in Africa. Through literature and participant observation, it has been discovered that there is great need for communities, cities and countries in Africa to adopt the green entrepreneurship which is ecofriendly and has capacity to provide green skills, green technology and green jobs for sustainable economic growth. This paper identifies the great need for communities and institutions in Africa to engage in a more intensive research and disruptive innovation approach to devise the means of ensuring a cleaner and healthier environment by proper waste management strategies which will help to guarantee sustainable environment and sustainable economic growth in Africa. Proper waste management is also a climate change mitigation strategy to ensure a sustainable future where economies can thrive and good health is fostered across every border. This paper also highlights the urgent need and innovative ways to educate communities and institutions in Africa about climate change mitigation for sustainable development which involves the reduce, reuse and recycling of waste products which is therefore very vital to ensure that our environment is a cleaner and greener place to live.

Introduction: Waste management is one of the climate change mitigation strategies for achieving sustainable development in Nigeria. Waste management education will bring about behavioral change and encourage public participation which is said to be the key to a functional waste management system. Waste is defined as any unavoidable material resulting from domestic activity or industrial operation for which there is no economic demand and which must be disposed of (Sridhar 1996). Wastes (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance which is discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. Green Entrepreneurial practices are those activities that are related to products or processes that are involved in reducing, reusing and recycling of resources for economic, environmental
and social sustainability (Fulvia et al, 2011). According to Greent Project (2016), Green entrepreneurship is the activity of consciously addressing an environmental/social problem/need through the realization of entrepreneurial ideas with a high level of risk, which has a net positive effect on the natural environment and at the same time is financially sustainable. A Green entrepreneur is someone who starts and runs an entrepreneurial venture that is designed to be green in its products and processes from the very moment it is set up. Green entrepreneurs are valuable assets across various communities in Africa today. The Green entrepreneur sees the problems caused by climate change, environmental pollution and global warming and also perceive the business opportunities in waste management and recycling. They take on the risk of engaging the process of waste recycling to ensure a sustainable environment and the sustainable economic growth of their community and nation.

There is great need to educate communities including institutions and companies in Nigeria on waste management and recycling to ensure sustainable development. This is vital as waste management will help to reduce the risk of climate change. Though, there abounds multiplicities in adverse effects inherent in climate change, the following approach could be deployed towards maximizing the economic opportunities in waste management and recycling in Nigeria: Radical awareness approach of information disseminations. The emergence of information communication and technology (ICT) around the world to a large extent has proven as very effective and efficient vehicle of letting people becoming aware of opportunities and benefits in waste management and recycling. These information dissemination platforms besides the internet include radio, television and telephone. The government at all levels in Africa should provide enabling environment and sustainable fund in form of grants and loans to the teeming unemployed and underemployed African youths who may want to be involved in the waste management and recycling businesses in their different capacities. This approach when incorporated into long term policy planning in climate change mitigation in Africa will go a long way in reducing unemployment among the youths in the continent. The use and involvement of non-governmental organizations that are deeply involved in waste management and recycling can go a long way in providing green entrepreneurial opportunities for a lot of individuals in Africa. Awareness of the economic opportunities in waste management and recycling can be made known to communities and cities through the various outreaches, seminars and workshops initiated by this environmental sustainability driven NGOs in Africa. i) Annual National budgetary allocation towards maximizing economic opportunities in waste management and recycling should be increased. ii) Building the capacity of the locals through adequate sensitizations, through the use of traditional and religious institutions in reaching the people through training and retraining of farmers and green entrepreneurs towards adapting to the opportunities in waste recycling for sustainability in Africa.
iii) Educational blogs can be used to inform, enlighten and educate researchers, entrepreneurs and interested individuals in Nigeria especially the internet literate ones about waste management and recycling. These blogs which are meant to be highly interactive allows individuals to contribute their ideas, suggestions and feedback to the environmental sustainability driven educators and green bloggers. iv) Poetry has also been discovered as a great tool which can be used to educate individuals in Africa about the health and economic benefits of waste management and recycling. Below is a poem advanced by the BENJY POETRY AND MUSIC GLOBAL CONCEPTS which further helps to illustrate how poetry can be used efficiently and effectively in educating communities in Nigeria about waste management and recycling for sustainability in Nigeria.