Lagos State has taken another step in its long-running battle with waste, flooding, and energy shortages, this time by turning a busy market’s daily refuse into a usable resource. On Monday, the state government formally launched a waste-to-energy biodigester plant at Ikosi Fruit Market, a facility designed to convert organic market waste into biogas for cooking and electricity, as well as fertilizer for agricultural use. In September 2025, the state government had unveiled plans to generate electricity using organic waste, a mountainous by-product that has long posed a daunting challenge in the Ketu-Ikosi fruit market.
The launch was announced by Tokunbo Wahab, Lagos State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, who described the project as a practical demonstration of the circular economy at work. Delivered in partnership with C40 Cities and supported by UK International Development under the Climate Action Implementation Programme, the Ikosi biodigester is intended to address a long-standing environmental problem in one of the city’s busiest produce hubs.
Turning a daily nuisance into energy
Ikosi Fruit Market generates tons of organic waste every day. Fruit peels, vegetable trimmings, spoiled produce, and unsold goods pile up as traders move fresh stock through the market. For years, much of this waste ended up in informal dumpsites, road medians, or nearby drainage channels. During the rainy season, the consequences were especially visible: blocked drains, localized flooding, foul odours, and rising health risks for traders and nearby residents.
Wahab said the new plant directly targets that cycle. Instead of being discarded, organic waste from the market will now be fed into an anaerobic digester, where it breaks down in the absence of oxygen. The process produces biogas, which can be used for cooking or electricity generation, and a nutrient-rich residue that can be processed into biofertilizer for farmers.
“Every day, Ikosi Fruit Market generates tons of organic waste,” Wahab said in a statement posted on X. “In the past, much of this ended up in dumpsites and road medians, clogging drains, creating health risks, and releasing methane into the atmosphere. Today, that same waste will be converted into biogas and fertilizer. This is the circular economy in action.”
For Lagos, a megacity of more than 20 million people, the symbolism matters almost as much as the technology. The Ikosi project brings climate action down to the community level, showing how everyday waste streams can be transformed into useful inputs rather than treated as an unavoidable burden.
A local solution in a bigger strategy
While the Ikosi biodigester is relatively small compared to industrial power plants, it sits within a much broader waste-to-energy strategy that Lagos has been assembling over several years. The state has increasingly turned to partnerships with foreign and regional firms to deal with specialized waste streams and to scale up energy recovery.
Lagos has agreements with two Dutch companies; Closing the Loop and Harvest Waste Consortium as well as Ghana-based Jospong Group. Closing the Loop is focused on electronic waste, with plans to establish a local facility that reduces exportation while repurposing valuable materials. Harvest Waste Consortium, on the other hand, is central to Lagos’ ambitions in municipal solid waste processing.
In October 2024, Wahab disclosed that Lagos had secured a €120 million commitment from the Netherlands to support its project with Harvest Waste Consortium. That facility is expected to convert between 2,500 and 3,000 tons of municipal solid waste into electricity every day, a scale far beyond what community-level biodigesters can achieve.
Read also: Analyzing the Future of Lagos Real Estate Market
Looking further ahead, the state government has also announced plans for a $400 million Waste-to-Energy plant in Epe, revealed in July 2025. The Epe project is designed to tackle waste disposal, generate electricity for up to two million residents, and help reduce flooding by easing pressure on drains and landfills. It is expected to be privately operated, with projections pointing to a 12% internal rate of return over 20 years.
Seen together, these initiatives show a layered approach: small, localized projects like Ikosi that deal with specific waste sources, and large, capital-intensive plants that handle the city’s growing volumes of mixed municipal waste.
Why market waste matters
Markets like Ikosi play an outsized role in Lagos’ waste challenge. They generate high volumes of organic waste daily, much of which bypasses formal waste collection systems. According to state data, about 80% of landfill capacity in Lagos is nearly exhausted, while only 63% of households are covered by formal waste collection. An estimated 67% of households resort to illegal dumping, worsening sanitation and environmental conditions.
Market waste (particularly food remnants and unsold produce) is a major contributor to organic waste volumes. Left unmanaged, it decomposes in open dumps, releasing methane, a potent greenhouse gas, while also attracting pests and contaminating waterways.
By targeting a fruit market, the Ikosi biodigester addresses one of the most concentrated sources of organic waste in the city. It also creates a closed loop: waste from traders becomes energy and fertilizer, which can support cooking, small-scale power needs, and agricultural productivity.
Read more: China Names Nigeria’s $24.6 Billion Ogidigben Gas Park Its Top Belt and Road Project in 2025
More than a pilot project
For Lagos officials, the Ikosi plant is not just a pilot or a one-off intervention. Honourable Wahab said it aligns with the state’s broader goal of building a resilient and resource-efficient city through visible, practical climate actions. The emphasis on visibility is important. Unlike distant landfills or power plants, the biodigester sits within a community, making the benefits of waste management tangible to traders and residents.
The challenge, as with many environmental projects in Lagos, will be scaling and maintenance. Ensuring consistent waste segregation, proper operation of the digester, and long-term funding will determine whether the model can be replicated across other markets.
Still, the Ikosi biodigester represents a shift in mindset. Instead of viewing market waste as an inevitable problem, Lagos is framing it as a resource – one that can power homes, support farmers, and reduce environmental harm. In a city where waste has long been both a symptom and a cause of urban stress, that reframing may be just as important as the energy produced.
