The project, which was jointly implemented by six organisations, namely EPA, Ghana National Cleaner Production Centre, Moun­tain Research Institute, Institute for Material Science and Technol­ogy (EMPA), Oeko Institute and World Resources Forum (WRF) was funded by State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).

Speaking at the closing cere­mony held in Accra yesterday, the Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Dr Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed, noted that the event marked not only the end of a significant project, but the beginning of a lasting commitment to sustainable e-waste management in the country.

He stressed that at the time the project commenced in 2013, the country was faced with severe chal­lenges in managing e-waste, partic­ularly in areas like Agbogbloshie, the largest e-waste recycling cluster in West Africa.

The Minister stressed that Ag­bogbloshie became notorious for unsafe practices like open burning of cables and dismantling of elec­tronics in hazardous conditions, resulting in significant environmen­tal and health risks.

“But today, we celebrate how far we have come, thanks to collab­orative efforts and the steadfast support of the Swiss Government through SECO, a framework for the environmentally sound man­agement of e-waste in Ghana has been established,” he said.

“Ghana ratified the Basel Convention and domesticated it through the Hazardous and Elec­tronic Waste Control Act, 2016 (Act 917), and L.I. 2250, however, prior to the SRI project, there was no specific e-waste policy or legis­lation, and most e-waste was man­aged informally under unsound practices,” the Minister added.

Dr Muhammed said the pro­vided valuable support for the establishment of a framework for environmentally sound manage­ment of e-waste along the value chain, included awareness creation, capacity building both for the for­mal and informal sectors, financing mechanisms, technology part­nerships, conformity assessment and management of hazardous components.

The Minister noted that the im­pact of the project was significant as it provided safe and sustainable jobs for the youth, protection for value chain workers, retrieval of valuable components, and promo­tion of downstream industries.

The Acting Chief Executive Officer of EPA, Prof. Nana Ama Brown Klutse, whose speech was read on her behalf by the Direc­tor, Climate Change and Ozone Department of EPA, Mr Felix Ad­do-Okyireh, said sustainable waste management especially sustainable e-waste management was critical to the attainment of a number of SDGs.

She said the SRI project had supported the authority to effec­tively have capacity building for personnel across the entire e-waste value chain; scrap dealers, regula­tors, recyclers, importers, policy support through policy briefs, busi­ness support through the expert pool and development of technical guidelines to support effective regulation of the sector.