Nigeria needs over 20 million toilets to achieve Open Defecation Free (ODF) target by 2025, the Executive Director, Toilet Pride, Chukwuma Nnanna, has said.
Speaking during the Toilet Business Owners (TBOs) conference, yesterday, in Abuja, Nnanna tasked the private sector to take up the challenge of developing business models to ensure Nigerians have access to toilet.
He noted that the conference was aimed at mobilising business owners across the country to network, brainstorm and strategise on increasing access to sanitation facilities in the country.
He said: “We have less than seven years to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets. When you look around, there is a lot of effort to be made. We need over 20 million toilets to achieve this target, and the private sector needs to take up this responsibility.”
According to the Toilet Pride boss, Nigeria has over 10,000 TBOs, but without formal set-up, adding that after the conference, they would provide a data monitoring system to ascertain the number of TBOs across the country and how many more needs to be established for national planning.
Nnanna noted that the private sector was doing a lot to bridge the gap, even with the poor Ease of Doing Business (EoDB), poor access to credit among others.
He said: “If we open up the space, provide more instructional support for the private sector, I can tell you that the private sector will gobble up effort and, in no time, we will be smiling towards an ODF country.”
Representative of WaterAid Nigeria, Solomon Akpanufot, noted that a lot of things needed to be done to achieve the ODF target by 2025; hence, the approach to achieving the target needed to be taken differently.
“My observation is that the sanitation sector is under pressure in Nigeria, and if we must meet the goal of ending open defecation by 2025 and then the SDG6.2, which has to do with sanitation, the TBOs need to partner every other stakeholder and government to ensure that every household and institution in Nigeria has descent toilet and makes use of the toilet,” he added.
