Coca-Cola, FirstBank, NEMA, Nestlé, Lagos, Rivers make HEAD Award shortlist

Nigeria’s foremost environment newspaper, NatureNews.Africa, has released a list of nominees for its annual Hero of Environment Actions for Development (HEAD) awards.

The list of nominees, who were selected from a pool of entries, was contained in a statement issued at the weekend by Prof. Abiodun Adeniyi, Chairman of the HEAD awards selection committee.

The selection committee is composed of seven independent members from diverse backgrounds.

He said the award, which recognises significant contributions to sustainable environment through climate change mitigation and adaptation solutions, will be given in the Public Sector, Private Sector and Individual categories.

Nominees for the Public Sector Award are government agencies that have made remarkable contributions in Water and Sanitation, Climate Action, as well as Biodiversity and Agriculture.

In the Private Sector category, the nominees were selected based on their creative solutions to climate change adaptation and financing.

The nominees in the water and sanitation category include Gombe State, Lagos state, and Rivers state as well as the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

Under the climate action category, the nominees include Rivers State Government, Federal Ministry of Environment; and the National Space Research and Development Agency.

National Agricultural Land Development Authority; National Biosafety Management Agency and National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure were shortlisted for Biodiversity and Agriculture Category.

For Private Sector, the Committee nominated private companies that have contributed to climate adaptation innovations and climate change financing.
Nominees include; Notore Chemical Industries Plc, Agip Nigeria (NOAC), Seplat Energy Plc.

Others are Coca-Cola, ProvidusBank, Nestle Nigeria, Heritage Bank, Access Bank, First Bank Nigeria Limited:

Five individuals also emerged from the selection process after careful review of entries. The nominees in this category includes Hadi Usman, a 67-year-old man who invented the cooking stove that uses water and air pressure to generate fire; Mustapha Gajibo, a university drop-out who produced the first set of electric vehicles for commercial taxis in Nigeria.

Also shortlisted were Yemisi Iranloye, a Nigerian lady that currently runs a processing outfit that is worth billions of naira at the moment; Ibrahim Gbadamosi, a 41- year old who transforms waste products to make furniture and art items; Adejoke Lasisi, a female entrepreneur who recycles Sachet Water nylon to make bags, clothes and shoes.

CATEGORY A: WATER AND SANITATION

1. Gombe State Government: For prioritizing the provision of portable water to the people of the state. Gombe Government approved N11.491 billion for the rehabilitation, upgrade and expansion of Gombe regional water scheme. The approved sum was used for the expansion of services, construction of three booster stations at Tumfure, Gombe capital zone, and NTA Gombe up to the International Conference. Borehole-based mini water supply was also budgeted for at Tabra area of Gombe, as well as rehabilitation of reticulation system, installations and laying of 160 kilometre distribution pipeline in the state.
2. Lagos State Government: For constructing 1.2km drainage diversion to tackle flooding permanently in Lagos State. The 1.2 kilometre diversion is in front of the Ilubirin Housing Estate that will take a big body of water onto the Lagos lagoon with three high capacity pumps aiding the effort. This project means the issues around flooding and drainage issues can be completely resolved in Lagos Island.
3. National Emergency Management Agency: For effective and efficient flood preparedness, mitigation and response in Nigeria and saving lives, property and infrastructure. NEMA activated emergency operations centres for search and rescue and needs assessment as the case may be; undertake post-flood damage and loss assessment. 33 out of 36 States and FCT were ravaged by flood this year.

CATEGORY B: CLIMATE ACTIONS

1. Rivers State Government – For the laudable efforts of clamping down on the activities of illegal bunkering, reducing the effect of soot in the State. The Government is tackling the soot crisis by destroying and closing down all identified illegal crude oil refining sites and activities in the state. The Government also declared 19 persons wanted for operating illegal crude oil refining sites, responsible for soots prevalent in the state.
2. Federal Ministry of Environment: For the development of a comprehensive energy transition plan for Nigeria with a detailed roadmap to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) by 2030 and net zero by 2060.
3. National Space Research and Development Agency: For Introducing and launching the first African Satellite television; space TV. The television station launched is expected to air a large amount of educational programming and provides live coverage of an array of manned missions, robotic missions, domestic and international launches. The network is digitally transmitted. The satellite links uses the DVB-S systems for transmissions.

CATEGORY C: AGRICULTURE & BIOSAFETY

1. National Agricultural Land Development Authority: For the establishment of NALDA farm Estates in Nigeria. The NALDA Integrated Farm Estates was developed as a means to consolidate all agricultural activities, (across the entire Agricultural Value Chain) to a single location in a community. This approach is easier to manage and more efficient in producing agricultural outputs, that will benefit the indigenes of the communities where the farm estates are located in. A typical NALDA Integrated Farm Estate contains the following sections: Poultry Pens, Animal Husbandry Pens, Fishery and Processing Facilities, Crop Farming Area, Warehousing and Storage Facilities, Training Areas, Accommodation Areas, Clinics and School Areas, Beekeeping sections, Grazing Area and Green house for Plant Nursery and Vegetable cultivation.
2. National Biosafety Management Agency: Stakeholders validation of National Biosafety guidelines on Genetically Modified plants with stacked Genes. The newly adopted document will guide the NBMA in the evaluation of biosafety applications for genetically modified crops with multiple genes, to ensure that the products from this technology are safe for human consumption and the environment.
3. National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI): For the peedy Implementation of Collaboration Between Nigeria & Jordan on Technology Transfer, Food & Agriculture. The MoU NASENI signed with the Decapolis on Food & Agriculture Traceability Technology Solution will enable Nigeria to exploit the Decapolis Food Guard platform, to certify the safety and quality of Nigerian food and agriculture products and to improve the efficiency of production and farming operations. This is to create new economic development paths for Nigeria’s industrialization which had been the focus and commitment of the Agency.