Earth Day Special on eWaste: 75% of ‘Tokunbo’ electronics in Nigeria unusable

NaijaAgroNet:

As the world celebrates the 2016 Earth Day, NaijaAgroNet reports exclusively that 75 per cent of used electronics devices also known in local parlance as ‘second hand’ or ‘Tokunbo’ electronics imported into Nigeria are unserviceable and unusable.

Confirming this, the assistant Secretary General of the Computer and Allied Products Dealers Association of Nigeria (CAPDAN), Mr. John Oboro said that 75 per cent of these Tokunbo items are not usually functional and cannot even be fixed.

“I will tell you that we have greater percentage of those (second hand electronics) that cannot be used, than can be used. Honestly speaking, I can tell you that about 75% of these items are not usable,” Oboro declared.

Also speaking, the Director, Basel Convention, Regional Centre, Prof. Oladele Osibanjo decried that the burning of used electronic devices generally are very hazardous, and those working on this could be prone to cancer, especially in Nigeria.

This, he said, is because those set of workers could take-in components that are dangerous, so it cannot be distanced from the incidence of high cancer rate which is on the rise now in Nigeria.

Prof. Osibanjo insisted that most of these electronic items are not usable and warned on the impact of continuous exportation of used electronics to developing countries, which he said negates the global village theory of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).

“We claim one global village, its important to ensure that countries from where these used electronics are being shipped from are cleaned up and the same goes to those importing nations, to ensure that eventually all sides are safe at the end of the day,” he advised.

NaijaAgroNet reports that exporters of these electronics, argued that Tokunbo devices extends the life span of these electronics and help in bridging the digital divide in the developing economies.

Further investigations by NaijaAgroNet revealed that large number of computers and electronics devices imported into Nigeria via Lagos, every month, are largely non-functional and non-repairable, hence they end up being stacked in private warehouses across the country, especially in the South-Western Nigeria.

Equally, NaijaAgroNet reports that very often these items are dumped in the residential areas at uncompleted buildings and invariably burnt, thereby realizing highly content pollutant into the atmosphere, air and water.

Meanwhile, NaijaAgroNet reports that over one billion people in 192 countries will take action to 

protect our shared environment; all across the globe, in big cities to small villages and everything in-between, people are organizing, demanding climate action, cleaning up their local communities, meeting with their elected officials, planting trees, and teaching their children to protect their planet.

NaijaAgroNet recalls that Earth Day’s legacy makes it the largest and most active citizen engagement campaign on Earth. This year's theme is "Trees for the Earth."

+Remmy Nweke +Naija AgroNet
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