The site-based data of contaminated and remediated soil samples are presented in Tables S1–S4 in the Supplementary materials .The soil samples collected from gold mining site showed the high est concentrations of Mn and Fe while those from Galvanized Roofing Sheet and ceramic industries had the highest levels of Cu and Zn. The concentration of Ca in the soil samples taken from Cement and Galvanized Roofing Sheet industries was the highest in all the samples analyzed
shows the average values of physical and chemical parameters of the compost, contaminated soil and remediated soil samples (with and without H. cannabinus). Results shown in this section represent the pooled data of analyzed soil (contaminated and remediated) samples collected from the four sampling sites.The compost sample exhibited the highest pH value (8.90 ± 0.02)followed by contaminated soil (8.46 ± 0.69) while the remediated soil sample with Kenaf plant (H. cannabinus) has the lowest pH value (7.63 ± 0.30). The pH of the compost and contaminated soil depicted an alkaline medium. After remediation, the pH decreased to a near neutral condition due to biodegradation activities of microorganisms present in the compost in consistence with previous work [31,32]. During nitrification processes, acidsare generated resulting into low pH environment [31]. Higher pH environment in composting reduces availability of heavy metals[33].