EcoNexus 3.0: OCCE set to advance monetisation of sustainability actions for industry
By: Abudu Olalekan
This is not another generic sustainability conference.
Lagos State’s Office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Climate Change and Circular Economy (OCCE) will convene industry leaders, sustainability practitioners and private sector stakeholders for EcoNexus 3.0, and this year the conversation is shifting hard.
For the first time, the entire focus is not on compliance. It’s on unlocking the actual financial value of climate and circular economy work that companies are already doing.
The event is themed “Beyond Compliance: Monetising Climate and Circular Actions for Industries”. It will take place on Tuesday, March 24 2026, Victoria Island, Lagos.
EcoNexus is now on its third edition. The previous two brought together pretty much every major player in the space to talk about practical, no-fluff approaches to climate accountability. This one builds on all that, but goes somewhere almost no event has gone before.
Titilayo Oshodi, Special Adviser to the Governor, spoke to Reportersroom about what makes this year different. She said for years the entire industry has missed the single biggest next step.
Everyone is now doing energy efficiency upgrades. Everyone is working on waste reduction, recycling, responsible sourcing. Almost nobody has worked out how to turn that work into revenue.
That’s the frontier. That’s what will actually make companies scale this work, instead of just ticking boxes.
“Up until now, this conversation always stopped at compliance”, Oshodi told us. “You do the work because the regulation says you have to. What we are saying at EcoNexus 3.0 is you are already doing all this work anyway. It’s time to recognise it, structure it, and get paid for it.”
During the event they will also be showcasing new practical tools to help companies measure and optimise their performance. Most notably they will be officially launching DecarbonIQ, a new platform built to help organisations track their carbon emissions and circularity footprint. Oshodi says this is not another useless reporting tool that gets filed away and forgotten. It’s built to be used day to day.
One thing that stood out to me is there will also be a full dedicated session exploring economic and business opportunities specifically for women in the sustainability and circular economy space. It’s aligned with International Women’s Day conversations, and frankly it’s nice to see this isn’t just the obligatory 15 minute slot they stick at the very end of every other conference.
At the end of the day, EcoNexus 3.0 is a pretty big marker for where Lagos is trying to go. The state has been very clear it wants to position itself as the African leader for climate action and circular economy work, and this event is a big part of that.
There are dozens of sustainability events announced every month. Most of them are completely pointless. Sorry but it’s true.
This one feels different. If it delivers on what it is promising, it could fundamentally shift how private sector companies in Nigeria approach climate action. For the first time, no one is asking you to lose money to do the right thing. They are asking you how you can make money from it.
The event is expected to draw around 200 senior private sector leaders, practitioners and policy makers. Organisers have confirmed that attendance is strictly by invitation only.
