The opportunity
Estimates of Nigeria’s domestic e-waste generation vary by methodology, but they point the same direction. The UNITAR/ITU Global E-waste Monitor placed Nigeria’s 2022 domestic generation at 500,000 tonnes, making it Africa’s third-largest generator; Nigeria’s Raw Materials Research and Development Council puts locally generated e-waste as high as 1.1 million tonnes a year before transboundary imports are added.
Nigeria is also Africa’s largest importer of used electrical and electronic equipment, receiving an estimated 500 shipping containers a month into Lagos ports, with a substantial share of that import stream unmarketable or uneconomical to repair on arrival.
Formal recycling capacity has not kept pace. Lagos State’s certified programme recycled 405 tonnes of e-waste in 2025, up from 305 tonnes in 2023: real progress, but by some estimates under half a percent of the volume the state alone is believed to generate. The gap is filled by informal operators using unsafe methods such as open burning and acid leaching, which is precisely the practice Ecofeld’s licensed model is built to displace.
The same dynamic is emerging in plastics. NESREA’s 2026 Plastic Waste Control Regulations introduce extended producer responsibility and recycled-content requirements, pushing brand owners and producers towards accountable aggregation and recycling partners rather than the informal market.
The opportunity is not simply that a lot of waste exists. It is that the volume is large, the informal sector cannot be formalised at scale by an unlicensed operator, and Nigeria’s regulatory direction is actively shrinking the room the informal sector has to operate in.
Why Ecofeld
- Licensed where most operators are not. CAC, NESREA and LAWMA registration, plus official appointment as a federal e-waste collector, are difficult for informal competitors to replicate and increasingly required by regulation.
- Two revenue lines, one infrastructure. Consulting revenue (EIA, EA, LCA, compliance) is stable and client-funded; collection and material recovery revenue scales with volume and material prices. Together they diversify risk.
- Regulatory direction is favourable. NESREA’s 2026 Plastic Waste Control Regulations and the Federal Government’s formal e-waste programme both push demand towards compliant operators.
- Leadership depth. Chartered and internationally trained principals with direct experience of the regulatory, technical and supply chain questions the business needs to answer.
- A demonstrated delivery record with government (NESREA), multinational (Diageo, United Nations University) and industrial (Ben-Bernard, Ayoola Pharmaceutical) clients.
Growth plan: PET and multi-material recovery
Ecofeld is extending its Lagos e-waste operation into PET and plastics aggregation alongside multi-material recovery of aluminium, copper and cardboard. It uses the same collection relationships, the same LAWMA partnership and the same regulatory credibility that underpin the e-waste business, while diversifying revenue across waste streams and buyer markets.
The diversification plan covers:
- defined waste streams and volumes across PET, aluminium, copper and cardboard
- capital investment tiers, from a lean entry point to a fully equipped aggregation operation
- equipment specification for sorting, baling and aggregation
- a mapped buyer network for each recovered material
- a profit model tested against the mapped buyers and current material prices
- a partnership structure with LAWMA for collection access and legitimacy
- a 12-month phased implementation plan from setup to full operation
- grounding in NESREA’s 2026 Plastic Waste Control Regulations, including EPR and recycled-PET content mandates