Insights into the source contributions to the elevated fine particulate matter in Nigeria using a source-oriented chemical transport model.

In 2021, Nigeria was ranked by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the top countries with highly deteriorating air quality in the world. To date, no study has elucidated the sources of elevated fine particulate matter (PM _2.5 ) concentrations over the entire Nigeria. In this study, the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model was applied to quantify the contributions of seven emissions sectors to PM _2.5 and its components in Nigeria in 2021. Residential, industry, and agriculture were the major sources of primary PM (PPM) during the four seasons, elemental carbon (EC) and primary organic carbon (POC) were dominated by residential and industry, while residential, industry, transportation, and agriculture were the important sources of secondary inorganic aerosols (SIA) and its components in most regions. PM _2.5 was up to 150 μg/m ³ in the north in all the seasons, while it reached ∼80 μg/m ³ in the south in January. Residential contributed most to PM _2.5 (∼80 μg/m ³ ), followed by industry (∼40 μg/m ³ ), transportation (∼20 μg/m ³ ), and agriculture (∼15 μg/m ³ ). The large variation in the sources of PM _2.5 and its components across Nigeria suggests that emissions control strategies should be separately designed for different regions. The results imply that urgent control of PM _2.5 pollution in Nigeria is highly necessitated.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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