After Ikeja Record report, Commissioner Wahab sets December deadline for Olusosun
According to the commissioner, the project’s contractor, Zoomlion Nigeria, has committed to round-the-clock operations in a bid to meet the year-end deadline.
Days after Ikeja Record highlighted lingering questions over the timeline for the redevelopment of the Olusosun dumpsite, Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, has provided a fresh update and a clearer completion target.
Following an inspection of the project after the June monthly environmental sanitation exercise, Commissioner Wahab announced on June 27, 2026, that work at the Olusosun site is making what he described as “real progress”. He said the new transfer loading station is now on course for completion by the end of 2026.
According to the commissioner, the project’s contractor, Zoomlion Nigeria, has committed to round-the-clock operations in a bid to meet the year-end deadline. As part of its corporate social responsibility, Zoomlion Nigeria will also rehabilitate the 1.2-kilometre access road leading into the Olusosun dumpsite.
When completed, the transfer loading station is expected to handle up to 2,500 metric tonnes of waste each day, transporting it to the material recovery facility in Ikorodu.
The project forms part of the Lagos State Government’s broader effort to move away from the traditional “pick-and-dump” waste management system by expanding recycling, waste-to-energy, and composting initiatives.
“In the interim we are procuring more compactors, exploring EV compactors, and introducing tricycle compactors that can navigate narrow inner roads and lanes that PSP operators currently struggle to reach. Reforms take time but we are fixing what is on ground while building the bigger picture,” Commissioner Wahab said.
The latest announcement offers the clearest completion timeline yet for one of the state’s flagship waste management projects.
A history of failed promises
In June 2026, Ikeja Record reported that uncertainty continued to surround the project’s timeline.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
The redevelopment plan was first announced on May 22, 2025, when Commissioner Wahab unveiled a partnership with Zoomlion Nigeria to transform the Olusosun dumpsite into a transfer loading station. At the time, he said the project would take 18 months to complete.
The commissioner repeated the 18-month timeline on November 26, 2025.
In December 2025, a Lagos State Government official told Ikeja Record that the 18-month countdown would not begin until the concessionaire had officially broken ground on the project.
On June 20, 2026, Commissioner Wahab, while defending the state’s waste management efforts, said construction of the transfer loading station was already underway and that the transition would take six months.
It was not immediately clear whether the six-month target replaced the previously announced 18-month timeline or referred to a separate phase of the project.
The latest pledge is one of several commitments by successive Lagos State administrations to rehabilitate or redevelop the Olusosun dumpsite.
The pattern stretches back more than two decades. In 2003, the Lagos State Government announced plans to refurbish Olusosun for environmental reasons and awarded the project to Julius Berger, but no significant work followed.
In 2014, LAWMA proposed transforming the dumpsite into a golf course within ten years, a plan that was later abandoned.
Under the Cleaner Lagos Initiative in 2017, the state said the site would be closed and redeveloped into a bus park, but that proposal never materialised.
In 2021, the Sanwo-Olu administration said Olusosun would close “in about two years”. That deadline also passed without explanation. ✚