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The World Environment Day Exhibition (WEDex 2025) hosted on June 13th this year at United Nations House, Abuja, has remained a pivotal one‑day summit— anchored annually by GreenHubAfrica Foundation and in collaboration with the United Nations Nigeria with participation from its relevant agencies UNIDO, UNDP, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC), alongside Sterling One Foundation, IHS Towers, the Nigerian Environmental Society (NES) and Nairametrics.
The WEDex celebration was more than an event, as it attracted captains of industry to converge to discuss policy, innovation, finance, and youth leadership, united under the banner “Ending Plastic Pollution.”
This year marked the fifth edition of WEDex, its strongest yet—proof of a movement which started as an online commemoration in 2020 to a now highly sought-after thought leadership platform.
From three webinars covering the topical issues of Innovation to combat plastic pollution, microplastics in our food chain to the mapping of Nigeria’s waste systems in the preceding week, the summit progressed into high-impact keynote addresses and panel discussions from the UN’s number one citizen, Mr. Mohammed Malik Fall, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator; Founder/CEO GreenHubAfrica Mr. Henry Bassey, NES President Dr. Efe Okobia, and Dr. Osuji Otu, UNIDO Programmes Manager—signalled a serious moment: Nigeria’s most influential institutions were aligning behind concrete action.
The United Nations Resident Coordinator, opening the day, emphasized that plastics form 13% of Nigeria’s waste stream, but they also present “vast economic opportunities” if addressed systematically.
Panellists explored both the financial and technological fronts. In one session, Sterling One Foundation’s CEO, Olapeju Ibekwe, described how its green-finance instruments are enabling youth entrepreneurship and jobs in recycling and reuse. “Our work on the beaches is not symbolic. It is a deliberate strategy to improve coastal resilience,” she stressed.
Another panel featuring tech innovators highlighted remote sensing, IoT devices, and digital traceability platforms now being piloted in Lagos and beyond.
Throughout the day, innovation lived in the exhibition. Firms such as Change Africa, Ecocycle Development, and Digital Peers International, and winners from the Small Grants Programme (SGP) turned the UN House foyer into an incubator for ideas: innovative card games on climate change, plastic‑to‑pavement solutions, waste collection, and community recycling schemes. What resonated most was practical creativity—proof that solutions are ready to scale.
Amid this energy, WEDex rekindled progress in environmental education. IHS Towers, sponsor of the 2023 Eco‑Action Project, saw its junior secondary school champions, Junior Secondary School Garki, receive renewed recognition for leading climate action in classrooms. That continuity—school to summit—demonstrated that environmental education remains central to WEDex’s impact journey.
One of WEDex’s most celebrated moments was the launch of the CASH Youth Network (CYN), a digital-first platform empowering 50,000 Nigerian youth with capacity-building training in circular-economy innovation. Their presence, alongside outreach to over 3,300 pupils through CASH School Visits, underscored the summit’s youth-centred DNA. As a young attendee, Adedamola Adekoya, reflected on LinkedIn, “WEDex 2025 … was an incredibly insightful experience! … one thing was clear—the urgency to act has never been greater,”
Perhaps the most remarkable outcome was not a speech or panel, but the collective mindset shift: WEDex 2025 did not attempt to merely reframe the plastic-pollution problem—it mobilized Nigeria’s sectors toward measurable solutions. It showcased that when the UN, government, finance, schools, and youth converge, national change is possible. As GreenHubAfrica CEO Henry Bassey aptly stated, “WEDex 2025 stands not merely as an event, but a platform—a bold expression of action and accountability”.
WEDex 2025 did not simply conclude with applause; it lit a spark for collective action- uniting pilots, partnerships, and policy commitments born today to drive change beyond these walls. May the momentum we’ve forged here resonate from Abuja to every corner of Nigeria, transforming our shared vision of a plastic-free future into the reality of tomorrow.
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