Waste management plans in States of the Nigerian Federation should be prepared in line with a national strategy/plan and municipal waste management plans should be prepared to guide local implementation. To do so, a process should be adopted to align municipal and regional waste management plans with the national strategy/plans. When building new infrastructure and facilities, individual municipalities should be encouraged to follow the adopted plans to ensure cohesive development of the sector across the whole country. This would ensure the efficient use of limited public resources and the coordinated development of the sector.
Inter-State cooperation in service provision should be promoted and could be supported by the Federal Government through a variety of guidance tools and incentives, such as access to financial resources for capital investments.
Large local government areas should establish a dedicated solid waste management unit within their municipal administrations with the responsibility of preparing municipal waste management plans and municipal regulations for households; regulating and monitoring service delivery; overseeing fee collection; and engaging the population.
LGAs should issue municipal regulations on solid waste management service provision. The regulation should outline the roles and responsibilities of the municipality, service providers, and waste generators, including households.
In most states, municipal regulations obviate the need for individual contracts between the service provider, who holds a geographic monopoly, and individual households. Individual contracts, on the other hand, are typically an unnecessary administrative and financial burden making waste collection costlier.
An independent municipal waste collection organization should be considered where service delivery is not outsourced. In several of the studied states, municipal enterprises perform various municipal services (waste collection, street cleaning, parks/green area maintenance, beautification, etc.) and their financial statements are bundled. However, an accounting system for dedicated cost allocation is necessary but often missing. This system should have at least a separate budget as well as annual financial statements for municipal waste services where such services form a significant share of the annual budget.
Small municipalities with low capacity require a lot of guidance to advance their systems. Capacity building could be provided by the state or an association of municipalities. In principle, associations of municipalities should be strengthened and their role institutionalized as a consultative partner.
Public communication campaigns should be carried out on a continuous basis. Such campaigns should not be a one-time or ad hoc event, and municipalities should ensure they have a professional and specialized team and a dedicated yearly budget allocation for this activity. Alternatively, the communication activities could be delegated to the waste collection companies