Former Senator for Ondo North district, Prof. Robert Ajayi Boroffice, has called on Nigerian youths to partner with government to ensure a clean and sanitized environment.
Prof. Boroffice gave the charge on Friday in Abuja during the award night to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Chanja Datti Recycling Company Limited.
He described waste recycling as an avenue to create jobs and lift young people out of poverty.
“The United Nations is very particular about environment. And environment has many components. One of the very vital components of environment is getting rid of waste.
“The federal government will be very, very pleased with any organization that is involved in this very important exercise in ensuring that we have a very pure and sanitized environment,” he said.
Prof. Boroffice also commended his daughter, Ms. Funto Boroffice, Founder and CEO of Chanja Datti, for grooming the company to its present status.
“All we’re doing is to support her with prayers. And by her nature, in her DNA, she’s very hardworking.
“And she has used every opportunity available to her to continue to grow the company, to even diversify, and also, most importantly, to contribute to national development in terms of providing employment for people, and also contributing to the education of youth, especially children who have not had the opportunity to go to school.
“And of course, as an ambassador of Nigeria, many, many fora which she has represented Nigeria through her company,” he added.
Also speaking, Head of Strategy and Innovation at Chanja Datti Ltd., Mr. Gabriel Onyebuolise, said the company was focused on expanding its impact for both the environment and people.
He explained that the organisation used the anniversary to recognise its partners and staff for their contributions over the years.
“We’re always creating new projects. And one of the most exciting things is that we’ve been able to achieve decentralizing collection of plastic waste. Now, we’re going to be transitioning to decentralizing recycling.
“Meaning, we want recycling to happen at source, not just collection. And beyond that, we’re also looking forward to move up the value chain, creating even finished, valuable materials, plastic products, from the recyclables we collect, and more exciting, producing polymer threads. These are just exciting journeys.
“We have recycling hubs in Abuja, up to 20 of those recycling hubs, positioned close to residential areas. We also have our mobile application, utilizing technology in our collection scheme. We integrate working with informal sector, by working with aggregators as well.
“So these are the various means we aggregate and collect materials, which are then processed at our factory in Area 1, Durumi, and our biggest factory now that can process up to 400 tons monthly in Giri,” Onyebuolise said.
Some staff of the organisation were also honoured with long service awards at the event, which held at the Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Central Area, Abuja.
