Ghanaian businessman Joseph Siaw Agyepong signs deal to close dumpsites in Lagos

Key Points

• Lagos teams up with Ghana’s Jospong Group to overhaul its waste system, shifting from landfills to recycling and recovery under a public-private partnership.
• Two recycling plants and transfer stations will redirect 4,000 tonnes of daily waste, creating over 5,000 jobs and boosting efficiency across Lagos.
• Deal reflects Agyepong’s pan-African sustainability push, with Jospong expanding its sanitation footprint in Nigeria, Ghana, and The Gambia.

Ghanaian businessman Joseph Siaw Agyepong is joining hands with the Lagos State Government in a major effort to change how the city deals with waste. The new partnership will phase out key dumpsites and introduce a modern system focused on recycling and resource recovery, moving Lagos away from its heavy reliance on landfills.

The agreement was signed through ZoomLion Nigeria Limited, a local arm of Agyepong’s Jospong Group of Companies. It lays out a public-private partnership that will bring in new infrastructure to help manage the roughly 13,000 tonnes of waste Lagos produces each day.

Deal signed to build modern waste facilities

At a signing ceremony held at the State House in Ikeja, Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Agyepong formalized the agreement. As part of the deal, two new plants, a recycling facility and a materials recovery center, will be built to give the state a more organized, environmentally friendly waste system.

In addition, two Transfer Loading Stations (TLS) will be constructed at the Olusosun Dumpsite in Ketu and Solous III in Igando. These stations will serve as holding points, allowing waste to be sorted and redirected to the new recycling centers.

The plan is to move 2,500 tonnes of waste daily from Olusosun to a facility in Ikorodu, while another 1,500 tonnes will go from Solous III to a center in Badagry. The project will also introduce self-tipping tricycles to improve garbage collection in neighborhoods that are hard to reach. All of this is expected to be up and running in the next 18 months.

Sanwo-Olu: “We’re turning waste into opportunity”

Governor Sanwo-Olu called the partnership a “turning point” for Lagos. “This is more than a contract, it’s a new way of thinking about waste,” he said. “It will help us create thousands of jobs, support local operators, and turn what used to be a burden into something useful. We’re not just clearing trash, we’re building a system that works for our economy and our environment.”

He said the initiative will generate over 5,000 jobs and improve how quickly and effectively waste is managed across the city. “Materials like food waste, plastic, and glass will be reused instead of being dumped. That means new chances for Lagos in recycling, carbon credit trading, and clean energy,” he added.

Agyepong said the partnership is about more than infrastructure, it’s about African countries solving shared problems together. “This shows what’s possible when we work across borders,” he said. “We’re committed to delivering everything we’ve promised.”

Jospong expands its footprint across West Africa

Agyepong has built the Jospong Group into one of Ghana’s largest and most diversified companies, with businesses in sanitation, technology, finance, and auto services. In Ghana alone, the group has developed 58 sanitation sites and 16 recycling and composting plants.

This isn’t its first collaboration with Lagos. Last year, Jospong signed a deal to build other waste treatment plants in the city. And earlier this year, the company signed a similar agreement with The Gambia to support its waste management efforts.

That agreement came after a five-day visit by Gambian officials to tour Jospong’s operations in Ghana. Both sides described the deal as “an African solution to an African challenge”—a phrase that captures Agyepong’s mission to help African cities tackle waste with practical, homegrown solutions.