The registration and enrollment of environmental plants, consultancy organisations and companies in Nigeria increased by about 1,469 between September and November this year, the Federal Government has said.
The National Environmental Standards and Regulations disclosed this in a report on environmental data and information management released at its 15th national stakeholders’ forum in Abuja.
It explained that the firms would support its environmental governance drive with the aim of capturing a wide range of environmental issues.
It outlined the issues to include drought and desertification, soil erosion and flooding, pollution from effluents and emissions, deforestation and solid waste menace, among others.
In the report, NESREA said the companies were captured under its permit audit and management portal, adding that 376 enrolled as environmental consultants during the three-month period.
The report, which was obtained by our correspondent on Friday, said 484 of the entities enrolled as environmental companies, while 609 of them registered as environmental plants during the review period.
The agency said it also processed 221 environmental consultant applications and that their certificates were currently available for downloads.
Speaking on the essence of environmental governance, the Minister of State for Environment, Sharon Ikeazor, said environmental problems would not be addressed adequately without appropriate data as contained in the NESREA report.
She said, “Attempting solutions to this plethora of environmental problems without appropriate data and information will not lead to the expected result. It is well known that statistics help in providing a better understanding and accurate description of nature’s phenomena.
“Gathering and analysis of data and information on the environmental situation across the country is the beginning of the whole activity aimed at the confirmation, remediation and mitigation of environmental challenges.”
The Director-General, NESREA, Prof. Aliyu Jauro, said the theme for the forum was ‘Environmental Data and Information: A key to environmental governance in Nigeria.’
“The idea behind this theme is for the stakeholders to critically think through the need for accurate and timely availability of data and information in the delivery of environmental governance in Nigeria as practiced in other environmentally conscious parts of the world,” he added.
