The United Nations Children’s Fund has said that Nigeria will need to build no fewer than 3.9 million toilets annually to end the open defecation practice by 2025.
The UNICEF Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Dr Jane Bevan, said this on Monday at the opening of a two-day Maiden Toilet Business Owners Conference in Abuja, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
The conference was designed to showcase and create awareness on the contributions of private sanitation enterprises in scaling up sanitation service delivery in Nigeria.
Bevan said that current toilet construction in the country stood between 180,000 – 200,000 toilets annually, describing it as inadequate.
He said, “About 1.3 per cent of GDP or N455 billion is lost annually due to poor access to sanitation – health, health care savings and productivity.
“Every dollar invested in water and sanitation results in economic benefits ranging from 3 dollars to 34 dollars.
“Nigeria cannot continue business as usual or it will miss the target of 2025 and 2030. There is need to strengthen and scale up proven strategies to reach the country’s goals.
“The private sector must work closely with all tiers of government and communities to actively create sustainable solutions to address the sanitation needs of unserved and underserved communities and help grow capital investment and human capital.’’
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Dr Didi Walson-Jack, expressed optimism that Toilet Business Owners would complement government’s effort towards realisation of the objective of ending open defecation in Nigeria.
According to her, Nigeria is ready for business and the market is expansive for quicker and bigger returns on investment as long as we are prepared to think outside the box.
She said, “TBOs are part of the Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) that would help in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
“This is particularly noteworthy in Nigeria where the SMEs have contributed approximately 48 per cent to the national GDP over the last five years as reported by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
“Moreover, the SMEs in Nigeria accounted for 96 per cent of all businesses in the country and employed 57.7 million people, representing 84.02 per cent of the workforce in 2016.
“I am therefore confident that with this level of SME participation in the economy, this conference will equip the participants with a better appreciation of the potentials of these enterprises for the Sanitation Sector.”
