Law establishing institute for environmental practitioners gazette

An Act establishing an institute for environmental practitioners in Nigeria has been gazetted.

The Act which establishes an Institute of Environmental Practitioners of Nigeria (IEPN) originated as a private bill jointly proposed by the Waste Management Association of Nigeria (WAMASON) and the Nigerian Environmental Society (NES) during the eighth assembly.

“For many years we have been seeking how to bring a framework into waste management and environmental practice,” said Akpabio Esien, President of WAMASON.

The NES on its part stated that the law was needed to create an institute that would be the source of trained and skilled environmental practitioners, experts, scholars and professionals that would be committed to standardising environmental activities and practices in Nigeria.

While promoting the bill in 2019, the then president of NES, Professor Lawrence Ikechukwu Ezemonye, said, “The bill was successfully passed by both chambers during the eighth assembly and transmitted for presidential assent. Unfortunately, the bill only lapsed due to time and was never declined. Presently, this bill is again receiving attention for the re-passage by the ninth assembly and just recently passed through the second reading in the House of Representatives and has been referred to the Committee of Whole. We would continually request for the support of all well-meaning stakeholders to ensure that this very important bill is passed into law by the ninth National Assembly.”

However, it was not until the end of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term in office that the bill was signed into law as the Institute of Environmental Practitioners of Nigeria 2023.

“By this law, you must be accredited by this institute for environmental practice or waste management in Nigeria,” Esien noted.

He added that “those who want to go into environmental monitoring, pollution control, environmental impact assessment must be recognised by the IEPN.”