Mr. Richard Montgomery, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, revealed intentions to launch a five-million-dollar British battery recycling enterprise in Ogun State.

Montgomery pointed out that Ogun will be the pioneer in battery recycling in Africa once the business is founded because it will be the first of its kind in the continent.

He made this claim on Wednesday while leading a few commission representatives on a courtesy call to Governor Dapo Abiodun at his Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, office.

“My short visit to this state is about the recycling agreement, which is relocating from Lagos State and constructing a new plant here for recycling e-waste,” Montgomery stated. I’m happy to be here to participate in the last discussion as Ogun Invest and Director General Lands strive to make sure the deal closes. That, in my opinion, will bring new jobs and technology to the state.

“Africans can now recycle cells back into chemical form and export the black mass—which contains the minerals inside the battery—to create new batteries, marking the first instance of this happening.

The fact that Ogun Invest provided us with help and that the Bureau of Lands certified the Certificate of Occupation is quite thrilling. We want Ogun State to be the location where this sector may flourish, and we can say that the investment will be roughly five million dollars.

According to him, his nation would also like to get involved in energy, technology, postsecondary education, and agricultural processing. It would also like to look into ways to attract more businesses with ties to the United Kingdom to invest in the state.

Montgomery added that his nation is prepared to provide technical assistance to the state’s mass transit system, which is presently undergoing testing, and that British International Investment, a financial development organisation, has invested in one of the largest cashew processing and export enterprises.

In response, Governor Abiodun stated that the purpose of purposefully providing road infrastructure and other facilities was to draw in more capital and have a significant influence on people’s lives.

Among the things he learnt while attending a conference in the UK in 2020, he continued, were the creation of the Ministry of Transportation, the creation of the Transportation Master Plan, and the construction of a cargo airport.

“We are open for business,” he declared. The environment is now appealing thanks to our management. We have minimised the presence of bureaucratic obstacles. For investors, we have simplified the land buying process. Our economy has expanded.

Ogun State is a progressive and successful state. I would like to express my gratitude to the High Commissioner for the assistance provided by the British Foreign Office.