AREAi, NCC Partner AREAi and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) are collaborating to research environmental impact of technology and the digital sector’s role in the climate crisis.
The NCC’s findings revealed that the energy sector, crucial to Nigeria’s ICT and digital technology infrastructure, accounts for approximately 34% of the nation’s total Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, ranking as the second-largest GHG contributor.
Furthermore, the technology ecosystem’s expanding “carbon footprint” is evident through GHG emissions across all stages of technological processes, ranging from raw material extraction for software and hardware production (including laptops, phones, television sets, desktops, and more).
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, Prince Gideon Olanrewaju – the Chief Executive Officer and Project Manager, AREAi, said that despite efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, the Information and Communication Industry (ICT) has received little attention even though it is a significant contributor.
“This is the underlying fact that led to the design of this intervention,” he said.
“It is evident that ICT emissions will not reduce without major concerted efforts involving broad political and industrial actions and, more significantly, a coordinated response that leverages informal approaches in galvanizing key actions across the whole spectrum of involvement across the ICT sector including innovation hubs, technology start-ups, data processing centers, and other producers, suppliers, and consumers of digital hardware.
“At least in every home in Nigeria there is a mobile phone. There is also data from NCC to show Nigeria’s Internet connectivity.
“In relation to the 34 percent of greenhouse emissions done by the tech ecosystem, we will work with the NCC and NITDA who are regulatory partners in the telecom system.”
SCALE, funded by the United Kingdom government through the DAP of the FCDO, stands for Smart Climate Awareness, Learning, and Empowerment. It aims to enhance the available evidence on the role of tech ecosystem stakeholders in reducing the digital environmental footprint. This involves leveraging research to manage product and service life cycles, adapt measurement approaches for IT asset and data center impacts, innovate in old and new IT processes, and develop Digital Environmental Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Sanwo-Olu Set to Establish Lagos as an Organized Food System, Value Chain Destination
The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has said that his administration is committed to establishing the state as an organized food system and value chain destination.
The state Commissioner for Agriculture, Abisola Olusanya, revealed this on Tuesday during the 2024 Ministerial Press Briefing, at Alausa, Ikeja, to mark the first year of the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu-led second term in office.
According to Olusanya, Lagos State government is committed to achieving its aims and objectives on its development of a five-year Agricultural and Food Systems Roadmap (2021-2025), as well as the Food Security Systems Policy Document.
The Lagos State government, she said, has established the Central Food Systems and Logistics Hub in Ketu, Ereyun and Epe areas to ensure food security in the state.
She further stated that the state government trained 51,676 Lagos residents in agripreneurship skills, across all departments/agencies/projects/ value chains of interest.
To kick-start operations at the Mid Level Hub, Olusanya stressed, the Ministry of Agriculture carried out a series of sensitisation programmes on good market standards and culture, product handling and hygiene, zero-waste and optimum return for food market operators across markets in Lagos, tagged: “Lagos Food Systems’ Champions Sensitisation Programme.”
This, the commissioner noted, was done in collaboration with other government agencies such as National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Lagos Waste Management Agency (LAWMA) and LASHMA (ILERA EKO) through various presentations in line with their individual agency’s mandate as it relates to food champions, market operations and the general objectives of the programme.
Her words: “Over 2,713 traders and butchers from major markets across the state participated in the programme.
“The overarching goal of the training is to entrench good practices, proper food storage and presentation and promote the hub.”
As part of the ministry’s feat in the past year, Olusanya said that the governor announced the “Lagos Market Trader Money” initiative to support 15,000 market traders across the 57 local government and local council development areas with N50,000.00 each.
The commissioner clarified that the intervention aimed to increase their capital base, enhance profit and improve livelihoods.
She equally said that the beneficiaries were selected in collaboration with the 57 LGA/LCDAs chairmen and market masters, as 250 beneficiaries were selected from each LGA/LCDA. 750 beneficiaries from barracks (Military, Air Force, Naval, and Police) across the state were among identified barracks.
Olusanya then disclosed that the state government introduced the Agri-thon, which is an innovative platform that blends young business owners and technologists, to ideate, formulate and render the Lagos food systems concepts that embody the future of agriculture.
The commissioner said the government had been able to regulate the prices as the Governor had approved seven additional food hubs in the state to make the state a food system and value chain destination.
Another milestone of the Ministry of Agriculture, Olusanya asserted, is the Agricultural Value Chains Enterprise Activation Programme (AVCEAP), which is designed to provide agricultural inputs and productive assets to agripreneurs in farming, artisanal fishing, aquaculture, agro-processing and marketing with business activator/starter packs, while nurturing existing agribusinesses into scalable profit-making and sustainable ventures and opening new windows of opportunities for active youth development.
Olusanya, while stressing the Eko Agro Mechanisation, which involves procurement of tractors and complimentary accessories to reduce drudgery in farm operations, added that mechanization services were provided to over 3,000 farmers for enhanced food security.
“Mechanization services can be accessed by farmers through Tractor-On -The-Go, a tractor hauling application on smart phone,” she said.
She mentioned, among other achievements of the Agriculture Ministry, the production of coconut seedlings, which is to enhance local coconut production by providing high-quality, disease-resistant coconut seedlings to farmers.
She said that there is also the production of Eko coconut oil, which is a local processing infrastructure for the extraction of high-quality coconut oil, contributing to self-sufficiency and reduced dependency on imported coconut oil.
On the development of rice value chain, Olusanya said that Lagos State is the largest consumer of rice in the country with an estimated consumption of about two million metric tonnes per annum.
“The mill is part of the government’s commitment towards ensuring food security in the state, which is a key component of the T.H.E.M.E.S + Development Agenda of Mr. Governor to make Lagos State a 21st Century economy,” she explained.
The Lagos State government, she said, has partnered with its Niger State counterpart on the “Produce for Lagos Initiative” towards the supply of agricultural produce from Niger State to Lagos.
