The European Union (EU) has selected Nigeria as one of the 14 African countries that have the capacity to manage e-waste, according to the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday.

Ogundoro Dada, director of Pollution Control of Federal Ministry of Environment, made the remarks in Abuja at the weekend.

Dada said that two Nigerian experts on e-waste management will visit e-waste management facilities in England to study how such facilities could be established in Nigeria.

According to him, e-waste is growing rapidly in Nigeria due to rapid development of electronic devices and decrease in their life span.

He said in 2004, more than 180 million computers were sold worldwide, while an estimated 100 million obsolete computers entered into the waste stream during the same period.

The director said that an estimated 130 million mobile phones were disposed of in 2004, noting that globally, e-waste growth was estimated to be in the range of between 20 million to 50 million tons per yea

The pollution director said developing countries lacked the legislation and enforcement capacity as well as the infrastructure to handle e-waste in an environmentally sound manner.

According to him, the Basel Action Network (BAN), a nongovernmental organization, estimated that about 400,000 used computers were being imported into Nigeria every month out of which 25 to 75 percent was junks.