Devolution Conference 2025 - Jospong Group makes case for partnership in waste management

The Devolution Conference (DevCon) opened in Kenya yesterday with a call on African governments to build watertight accountability systems and transparent mechanisms for the efficient management of public resources. 

Making the call at the opening session of the conference, the President of Kenya, Dr William Ruto, stressed that although African countries had abundant natural resource endowments, weak accountability systems and corruption on the part of public officials largely accounted for the continent's underdevelopment.

"While we may not have all the resources we need, we have enough to deliver public goods and services for the benefit of our people.

"We need to ensure efficient use of the resources we have by putting in place institutional frameworks and policies that will tackle corruption head-on and help to plug revenue leakages,” he said.

Again, the Keyan President stressed that the time had come for anti-graft agencies in Africa to live up to their responsibilities of dealing with corrupt public officials who were siphoning resources meant for the public.

"For Kenyan people, I want to assure you that there will be no sacred cow anywhere; there will be no space for any call from above or below to prevent anyone from facing justice for corruption," he stressed.

The DevCon is Kenya's largest biennial gathering that provides a platform for exploring key interventions for addressing national development challenges.

DevCon 2025, which is the ninth edition, is being attended by over 12,000 delegates on the theme "For the people; for prosperity: devolution as a catalyst for equity, inclusion and social justice."

The conference taking place at Homa Bay brought together government officials, development partners, the private sector, civil society, and international stakeholders.

Ghana and Africa's sanitation and waste mismanagement giant, the Jospong Group of Companies (JGC), is participating in the DevCon 2025 as a platinum partner. 

Jospong prospects

Addressing the over 12,000 delegates, the Executive Chairman of JGC, Joseph Siaw Agyepong, said African governments needed to strengthen collaboration with business leaders on the continent to unlock the potential of the continent.

Particularly, he said, the mounting waste management challenges in African countries could be addressed when state institutions worked in partnership with the private sector to deploy the appropriate environmental protection solutions.

"I stand here with over 25 years of experience and expertise in integrated waste treatment and management, which is a daunting challenge for most African countries.

Mr Agyepong said with 57 million Kenyans generating 28,000 tonnes of waste daily, leveraging JGC's innovative solutions in the waste management value chain would be the way to go.

He said about 52,000 jobs would be created in Kenya in one year through the waste treatment plants, explaining that 30,000 of those jobs would be from waste collection, transportation and sweeping; 21,000 would be created by the integrated waste management plants; and 1,800 from green initiatives, including data collection and monitoring and validation of the carbon market. 

Prudent policies

The Governor of Homa Bay County, Gladys Wanga, said DevCon 2025 was a call for the development of policies that were people-centred, inclusive and capable of delivering prosperity to people at the local level.