- Residents of Ajao Estate in Lagos woke up to door notices announcing a sharp increase in monthly refuse collection charges
- The estate chairman said the waste company went weeks at a time without collecting refuse while residents kept paying the existing fee
- The waste management company defended the hike, citing a more than double rise in diesel costs and the closure of nearby disposal sites
Residents of Ajao Estate in Lagos have refused to accept a new set of waste collection charges after their service provider raised monthly fees by 33 per cent without prior notice, with flat occupants now expected to pay N8,000 per month, up from N6,000.
The rejection came after residents reported that the company had delivered inconsistent service for between four and five months before announcing the higher tariff through notices pasted on doors across the estate.
Photo: Bloomberg
Source: Getty Images
Residents Say Company Failed Them First
Olu Isijola, the estate chairman, spoke on behalf of residents on Thursday, July 30, saying the abrupt announcement caught many households off guard.
Isijola said:
“We just saw an unexpected notice placed on our doors announcing an increment in the monthly refuse collection fee.”
He added that the company regularly went one to two weeks without collecting refuse, offering operational excuses when it eventually showed up.
“This company has been neglecting us for over four or five months. Sometimes they won’t come for a whole week or even two weeks. When they eventually come, they give excuses that they have problems somewhere. They were not collecting our refuse regularly, yet we still paid them. Now we are saying no.”
Beyond flats, the revised charges set monthly fees for wing duplexes at N9,000, standard duplexes at N10,000 and mini flats at N5,500.
Residents argued that any fee review should follow service improvements, not precede them, and that the company had no right to pass its operational burdens on to paying customers.
Company Blames Rising Diesel Costs and Site Closures
In a notice titled ‘Marginal Tariff Review’, the waste management company apologised for recent service disruptions and offered an explanation for both the irregularities and the fee increase, Punch reports.
The company said its previous tariff was set in March 2024, when diesel cost roughly N800 per litre.
Fuel prices have since climbed to between N1,700 and N2,000 per litre, more than doubling its operating costs.
Photo: Bloomberg
Source: Getty Images
It also said the closure of disposal sites close to Ajao Estate had forced its trucks to travel as far as Ikorodu and Badagry, pushing up fuel, maintenance and labour expenses significantly.
While repairs to government disposal facilities remain pending, the company said collections would take place once every two weeks and asked residents to be patient, describing the tariff adjustment as essential to keeping its operations running.
Lagos govt acknowledges its ‘bad’ waste evacuation
In a related development, the Lagos State government has acknowledged lapses in waste evacuation across major parts of the state, apologising to residents over the recent sanitation challenges caused by delayed refuse collection.
Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, admitted that waste management had faced serious difficulties in recent months, following complaints from residents over heaps of refuse on roads and drainage channels.
Wahab said the government recognised the problem and was already taking steps to address it.
Source: Legit.ng