Kano Govt, CapeGate to generate 150MW electricity from waste in 5 years

Capegate Investment Company has disclosed plans to generate 150 megawatts of electricity from waste products in Kano state northwestern Nigeria in the next five years.

The Group Chief Operating Officer of the Company, Bello Abba Yakasai disclosed this while briefing newsmen in the state.

Yakasai said they planned to generate 10 megawatts by 2022 and attain the 150 megawatts in the next five years.

He said to achieve the set goal they intend to establish three industries namely Transfer stations, diversification of non-usable materials into gas and organic fertilizer industries.

“We are going to convert High Density Plastic, HDP, tyres into burnable oil.

“LDP plastics will be used for recyclable purposes. From pure water, leather, shopping bags and water bottles.

The Chief Operating Officer, also said it’s out of the same waste products that bio degradable waste are going to be used in generating electricity.

“For bio-degradable waste, we have two uses. One is the biggest that we are investing a lot of money on. We burn those materials to produce gas, gas help us to turn to create steel, steel turns turbines while turbines provides electricity.

“Our hope is that by the end of next year, we will generate 10 megawatts of electricity from the waste in Kano. And every year after that, depending on how the typology of waste changes, we should be able to generate 30 Megawatts and so we are hoping to generate 150 megawatts in Kano in five years and more than what Kano requires. We are also considering generating 2 megawatts of solar to power street lights in Kano,” he said.

Checkmating Flood

Yakasai said that with the coming of the company in the last three months it has succeeded in mitigating the state from perennial flooding and keep it clean.

“We spent about eight weeks dregding all flash points of flooding in the state. With the intervention, no major case of flooding has been recorded this rainy season.

“It is a known fact that Kano is the most dirtiest in the country but within a short period of time, Kano is wearing a new look.

“It is a Public Private Partnership, PPP. When we came on board, we inherited all the staff of the defunct Refuse Management and Sanitation Management Board, REMASAB, and doubled their salaries including the casual staffs. 

“We have over 2,000 workforce. We have recruited 200 fresh graduates. We are targeting to employ over 5,000. The partnership is for 20 years,” Yakasai said.

Emmanuel Ukoh