Business
Abia state govt to commence waste recycling soon
Abia State Government says having made tremendous progress in terms of environmental sanitation and cleanliness of public spaces through the activities of the state Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA), it is now moving from Waste management to waste recycling.
To this end, the government has concluded arrangements with a reputable recycling company to commence with the setting up of a recycling plant for waste plastics in Aba this month.
The Commissioner for Information, Prince Okey Kanu disclosed this at the Government House Umuahia, during a media interaction on the outcome of this week’s state Executive Council meeting presided over by Governor Alex Otti.
He explained that ASEPA’s new waste management process entails collection of waste at the point of generation, focusing on residential areas and business premises.
“ASEPA is poised to run a hybrid that will involve central collection of waste in places such as markets and from some areas with high traffic, population and of course narrow or arterial roads.”
On revenue collection, Kanu hinted that ASEPA, with the assistance of the state government , is now on the verge of implementing their new tariffs and rates across the state , saying waste disposal is seen as a social service .
“However, the citizens will, to a reasonable extent, bear some burden in terms of paying some tariffs for waste disposal services to make the process more viable and efficient, Prince Kanu stated.
The Information boss used the forum to express the need for members of the public to monitor the activities of scrap dealers who tamper with ASEPA buckets as well as sought the assistance of the public to help ASEPA and other agencies of government to monitor government’s assets against the activities of social deviants.
“We have instances of scrap dealers who steal or remove ASEPA buckets, so we need members of the public to take ownership of these assets and help in monitoring the activities of such unscrupulous individuals in the society.
“They also need to be wary of some criminals and members of a syndicate who defraud members of the public in the name of being ASEPA revenue agents.
“We are, however, encouraging members of the public to report suspected cases of extortion of people to the Harmonized Task Force and other law enforcement agencies,” Prince Kanu stated.
On Education, Commissioner Kanu stated that the planned movement of the Law faculty of Abia State University (ABSU), from the temporary Umuahia campus back to Uturu will commence by the end of this first semester.
“The new session and first semester commenced on the 3rd of March, 2025 and will end about the end of June this year.
“The earlier planned movement was hampered by a number of reasons, ranging from students examinations to issues of processes, procedures and logistics. Of course, the Umuahia campus also had some accreditation matters to deal with before the movement to Uturu,” he said.
“So as a right thinking government and one that listens to it’s citizens, the government allowed the Umuahia campus to deal with some of these issues while engaging in infrastructural upgrade needed to make the movement, back to Uturu, seamless and worthwhile.”
Prince Kanu further said that the University admitted about 6,246 fresh students into the first year.
“That is a 48% increase over last year’s figure of 4,196. Interestingly, the quotas for Law, Medicine, Pharmacy and Nursing sciences were not exceeded: a situation that speaks to the new culture of governance and administrative discipline currently obtainable across government institutions in Abia state,” Prince Kanu stated.
He reiterated that the state government’s compulsory education policy is up- and- running and is being implemented across the length and breath of the state.
Prince Kanu reiterated that pupils in primary schools and students in the junior secondary are not supposed to pay any type of fees including PTA fees, sports fees, among others.
He said that the Heads of schools and Principals are being paid monthly imprest to run their schools .
The commissioner also announced that the date for the Computer Based Test (CBT) for the ongoing teachers recruitment exercise would now hold on the 6th and 7th of March instead of the 5th and 6th earlier announced.
In terms of road infrastructure, Kanu declared that the State government has continued to record visible achievements , revealing that a total of 28 contract projects are ongoing while there are over 40 direct labour reconstruction and maintenance works going on across the state.
Contributing, the commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education Elder Goodluck Ubochi explained that the essence of the shift in date by one day for the Computer- Based-Test was to enable government fix some of the challenges noticed, especially, in locating CBT centres across the state.
He said that there would be 2 CBT centres in each of the three senatorial zones , adding that government wants to use this week to fix the challenges observed; including identification of CBT centres where the candidates would take the exams.
Answering questions from newsmen, the General Manager of ASEPA, Mr Ogbonnia Okereke said the agency and Ministry of Environment are collaborating to deliver on state government’s mandate of keeping Abia environment clean and healthy.
He said that a big recycling company is setting up a plastic recycling plant in Aba which would be commissioned during the 2025 World Recycling Day holding on the 18th of March 2025.
He said the state government is partnering many organizations to set up similar processing and recycling plants in the state.
“We started with waste collection. But now, we want to move into the next level of recycling waste. We are moving from a linear economy to circular economy in the area of waste management.
” We are in talks with different groups, different organisations to discuss how they can partner with us in these areas,” Mazi Okereke stated.
The Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Prof. Uche Emeh Uche and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Mr. Ferdinand Ekeoma were present at the media interaction.
