The Ogun State Government has announced that it will partner with the Oyan Dam on hydropower to generate clean energy to satisfy industrial and domestic needs and sell to other states.

The Commissioner for Environment, Ola Oresanya, stated this while welcoming a delegation of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation National Experts on Advancing Nigeria’s Green and Just Transition to Net Zero Through Circular Economy Practices to Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

Oresanya also revealed that the state government is encouraging companies domiciled in the state to take advantage of the benefits of circular economic practices through the transition to cleaner energy.

According to him, the state will key into the new national policy which allows states to generate their own energy through circular economic practices for further industrial growth.

Oresanya said clean energy is important to the state as the industrial capital of the country with over 700 large and over 300 smaller industries.

He added that with the production of more than 1,400 metric tonnes of plastic, more than 1,200 papers being recycled, with ferrous and non-ferrous metals being recycled in the state, there is a need to key into the national policy on energy through circular economic practices that will lead to production of cleaner energy in the state.

 “This is necessary so that the use of fossil fuels which add significantly to the production cost of companies with its harmful effects such as air emissions and various forms of pollution which impact negatively on the environment can be reduced or eliminated.

“Already, the state is on the right track to achieve this as the first state in Nigeria to adopt Compressed Natural Gas to power its public transportation system and also the first to use electric bikes to replace bikes that burn fossil fuel,” Oresanya submitted.

Also speaking, the delegation lead for the UNIDO National Experts, Mr Oluyomi Banjo, said Ogun State is one of the five states that passed the organisation’s assessment tests on Advancing Nigeria’s Green and Just Transition to Net Zero Through Circular Economic Practices, saying this confirmed that the state is doing the right and just things about the circular economy.

Banjo said with the state government’s adoption of a national policy on energy through the circular economy, more industries will come to Ogun.