Investing in Waste-to-Energy Technologies to Meet Nigeria’s Growing Waste Challenges

Nigeria faces great challenges in waste management, generating 32 million tons of waste annually. Negative externalities of inadequate waste infrastructure include pollution, health hazards, and immeasurable economic losses, concerns that have attracted the attention of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA). 

The Columbia Capstone team has supported NSIA’s endeavor to identify a scalable, impactful, and commercially viable investment opportunity in waste management in Nigeria to address these challenges. After conducting comprehensive market and legal research, stakeholder interviews, and a research trip to Morocco, the Capstone team identified waste-to-energy (WtE) investment opportunities for NSIA. Final deliverables address a) barriers to an efficient and effective waste value chain in Nigeria, b) opportunities for extracting value from waste, and c) financial, technological, and regulatory criteria necessary for successful investments in such opportunities. Specifically, the team compared two major WtE technologies: biogas and incineration. Leveraging biogas from the anaerobic digestion of organic waste can produce low-cost electricity and avoid methane emissions, in addition to lower capital expenditure than an incineration plant. An in-person trip to a biogas plant in Fez, Morocco further demonstrated its feasibility and scalability for a developing country with a higher organic composition of waste mix, the potential for carbon credit generation, and favorable power market economics. Based on the findings, the Capstone team recommended investing in a biogas pilot project that can be scaled if successful. Additionally, NSIA should further investigate WtE incineration in the future as it is effective at processing high quantities but requires much higher capital expenditure. 

*This project was supported by Professor Jenik Radon.