By Hauwa Ali
The harsh economy and unemployment situation have forced many Nigerian youths to join the electronic scrap business, where they buy spoilt, unwanted electronic items and deliver daily to scrapyards and they get paid.
This may not sound like a coveted job, but it is worth billions of dollars, and it keeps lots of people employed all over the world, not just in Nigeria.
The business usually involve young and energetic people, especially men, with little or no academic qualifications. They scout the major cities and towns for unused old electronic and metallic items to buy. In Nigeria, scrap collection is a steady daily source of income for collectors.
Collected scrap items are taken to companies where they are dismantled for further refining or exported to countries where they are in high demand.
Ilyasu Abba, one of the scavengers at the Ikeja Computer Village told Naturenew from the electronic scraps they get gold, silver and other precious materials they use to make earrings and necklaces.
“We break the items and recover aluminium, copper or iron. We sell aluminium to people that make things with Aluminium. We take copper and iron to Apapa Ijora, where they use the copper to make earrings and necklaces. The iron, the melt them and use them to make iron rods for building houses. From Apapa, some of he items go to Badagry and they export some too.
“The panels that we remove, we sell them to white people who take them to their country to make another electronic and come sell it to us again at higher prices.”
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On whether the job entails any known risk, Abba said: “Our work is not dangerous, I’ve been into this business for over 20years and I have not encounter any dangerous thing or chemical. Although when breaking some electronics, we hear a loud sound, but there’s no acid or anything coming out. Some people even come here and take our blood for testing, but there’s nothing, the results are normal. A lot of Chinese are involved in this business, if there’s anything they have all died. The most that has happened to me is weakness of the body.
On whether the business is profitable Abba said: “There’s a lot of money in this business. A lot of youths are into the business now unlike before when people don’t want to join the business. There’s a man at Ijora, he can afford any house he wants in this Nigeria from this scrap busines. “
Another scavenger, Yakubu Aadam, has this to say: “I see a lot of money. I have been here for 19 years now. Some of these panel you see, we sell one for over 7,000 naira for export and we sell a lot in a day.”
“Before, if people finish school, they wait for government jobs but now, after youth service, no one is waiting for any job, they join this business. There are a lot of graduates here. Some of them are in the market looking for scraps to buy and sell to us. Even women have joined plenty.”
What is clear is that these men don’t know the health hazards they are exposed such as toxins from lead, mercury and cadmium embedded in electronic wastes; or maybe they know, but are intoxicated by the money they get from it.
