e-waste and Nigerian state

Features of the week:

The issue of electronic waste otherwise called e-waste would pass as one of those things, but for the recent outcome of the Basel Action Network (BAN) study in some developing countries including Nigeria. REMMY NWEKE reports from Germany that the outcome of the study is as revealing as it is shocking.

"… What Africa needs is clean jobs. Africans want to live like other human beings, they want to enjoy life. This (e-waste) is shortening their lives … If somebody know [s] that something is bad, and you give this to somebody who is poor, you are terrorizing him. I call this toxic terrorism really, because it’s only beneficial to one side …." – Prof. Oladele Osibanjo, Director, Basel Convention.

Nigeria’s known toxic waste anxiety in 1988 was found in Koko in the southern part of the country, but the news report of "The Digital Dump: Exporting Re-Use and Abuse to Africa," re-echoed with some sense of alert recently in Lagos, the commercial nerve center of the nation.

e-waste, an electronic and electrically equipment (WEEE) generated waste has find another route into the country, as most of supposed fairly used ‘second-hand’ Personal computers (PCs), monitors, Television (TVs) and cell phones; which are either usable and repairable are being shipped into developing countries from developed nations.

The report released by the Seattle, Washington-based organization, Basel Action Network (BAN), advocates of global prevention of toxic trade from rich to poorer nations, was conducted in conjunction with San Jose-based Computer TakeBack Campaign.

Current situation

As stated by the report released penultimate Monday, October 24, 2005, United States (US) and Europe, were aiding and abetting the creation of a ‘digital dump from re-use and repair’ trade, established on the number of ‘unexpected’ exports to developing countries like Nigeria, who are struggling daily to reposition their economic quagmire saturated with corruption and inexplicable debt to Club of Creditors nation led by the Paris Club.

Although US’ National Safety Council, was reported to have disclosed that over 63 million computers in US only would be obsolete by end of this year.

BAN had also in 2002 conducted similar study in Asia, where it found that over 50 per cent of electronic waste collected for recycling in the western US, ended up being recycled in unregulated and unhealthy conditions in parts of China, India and Pakistan.

Parts of BAN’s latest report read: "A new investigation … has revealed that large quantities of obsolete computers, televisions, mobile phones, and other used electronic equipment exported from US and Europe to Lagos, Nigeria for ‘re-use and repair’ are ending up gathering dust in warehouses or being dumped and burned near residences in empty lots, roadsides and in swamps creating serious health and environmental contamination from the toxic leach ate and smoke".

A computer monitor, for instance, expert said, on average contains estimated eight pounds or three and half kilogrammes worth of lead, in addition to plastics laden with flame retardants and cadmium.

Re-use is good but …

In Lagos, BAN led by its coordinator, Mr. Jim Puckett noted that there is a legitimate robust market, ability to repair and refurbish old electronic equipment including computers, monitors, TVs and cell phones, by local experts who also complained of estimated 500 40-foot containers shipped to Lagos monthly, with 75 per cent of the imports presumably "junk" which are not economically viable through repairs or marketable.

Mr. Puckett, also said, "Re-use is a good thing, bridging the digital divide is a good thing, but exporting loads of techno-trash in the name of these lofty ideals and seriously damaging the environment and health of poor communities in developing countries is criminal."

The report traced corroboration on numerous computer identification tags from schools and government agencies as well as forensic examinations of hard-drives picked up by BAN in Lagos, unveiling some very personal information about their previous owners.

Lack of enforcement

This kind of trade, he said, is illegal under international rules governing trade in toxic waste such as the Basel Convention, but blamed governments and specifically the US for refusing to ratify, implement or properly enforce these rules for toxic electronic waste, from its end.

Proper enforcement of these rules, Mr. Puckett said requires all such e-scrap exports, whole or in parts to be properly tested for functionality and certified to be going to re-use destinations rather than for disposal or recycling, warning that everybody including users of electronic equipment need to be extremely careful.

"Things are completely out of control, manufacturers have got to get toxic chemicals out of electronic goods, governments have got to start enforcing international law, and we consumers have got to be a lot more careful about what our local ‘recycler’ is really doing. It’s time we all get serious about what is now a tsunami of toxic techno-trash making its way from rich to poorer countries, and start taking some responsibility," he declared.

A time bomb

Presently, there exists Decree 42 in Nigeria on hazardous waste which stipulates complete ban, but was not specific on e-waste. According to chief environmental scientist at the Federal Ministry of Environment, Mrs. Olakitan Ogunbuyi, "the Basel Convention has been ratified (by Nigeria) but not domesticated" and importers are taking advantage of this to ship in e-waste which comes as technologies – cell phones and PCs. Additionally, she said burning of this junk generates dioxin which is not visible but has dangerous effect in the long run.

Director, Basel Convention regional coordinating center, Ibadan, Nigeria, Prof. Oladele Osibanjo, described the study revelation as a time bomb. "… I was shocked to see these tones, heaps of e-waste. People believe out of sight is out of mind. Burn it off and it disappears. Of course, you just changed it from solid to gaseous phase; it’s still the same problem". Prescribing that what is good for the goose should also be good for the gander.

Total ban

In his reaction, President of the hardware group of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) known as Information Technology (Industry) Association of Nigeria (ITAN), Mr. Will Anyaegbunam, told Champion Infotel, though he had always known that there are lots of junks coming into Nigeria in the name of second hand or fairly used PCs and primarily into the Otigba computer village, "it is quite a surprise to me that the figure is as high as 500 containers".

Mr. Anyaegbunam, who also is the managing director, Beta Computers, said it is high time the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) declare a total ban on the importation of these PCs among other electronic gadgets, mostly within a specific thresh-hold and years after manufacture.

He was quick to visualise that even the specification threshold and age limit will be difficult to enforce, hence he advocated for a total ban on second-hand IT equipment.

"Except for tested and verified imports for donation to educational institutions," he asserted, insisting that this way, "No second hand PCs or other IT equipment should be allowed for resale". Further, he disclosed that ITAN would soon come out with a stand after reviewing the BAN’s study.

Mitigating the effect

Therefore, it is time for some recycling companies currently over 40 located in US to extend their offices and ingenuity to developing nations, like Nigeria to assist in cushioning the third leg effect of these unwholesome exports.

Whilst waiting on government and its agencies like SON and Customs to brace up, as well as the Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) to, maybe, come out of the shock of the e-waste dump in Nigeria, it is another confirmation of how developed nations are under-developing the continent as noted 32 years ago by Walter Rodney in his 1973 book, "How Europe under-developed Africa".

Study ranks African media low on ICT policy

Recent study on the quality of media coverage of contemporary Information and Communications Technology (ICT) policy issues on the continent has ranked African media low, even in Nigeria, it is “he who pays the piper, detects the tune”.

The study funded by CATIA through its policy advocacy programme in Africa, was published as the Highway Africa project at Rhodes University, South Africa, indicating that the media was silence on ICT policy issues in six African countries where the study was carried out, including Nigeria.

Other countries covered were Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Senegal and Kenya while it was coordinated in South Africa.

The report made available to Champion Infotel also showed that in Nigeria, media ICT policy coverage could be found as inserts targeted at the IT industry, while business and private sector interests were given priority because “they pay the piper”.

Whereas the government and industry are the main users, consumers and spokespersons of ICTs were not left out.

The study which lasted for over six months was basically conducted by African researchers, for Africans to redress the attitude of Northern-based researchers´ treating the continent as merely research object, without addressing her assumptions around human capacity.

Key findings of the study indicated that while the activities of the ICT sector varies in each of the countries, the media in general showed little interest in ICTs.

Except for Ethiopia, which showed a significant amount of coverage during the study period, including letters to the editor, it added that ICT coverage whether in an ICT excerpt or in the main newspaper, shows no analysis or critique of ICTs sector generally, which points to “lack of understanding in the media of ICT policy issues in general”.

The executive summary of the report said that except for Kenya, each of the aforementioned countries, where monitored based on what was described as ‘policy-influential media’ for a duration of four weeks.

It also stated that where ICT policy-related events were held, media coverage was monitored in the periods, before, during and after the event.

“In the latter case, researchers also attended these events to further assess the media’s interpretation of the event versus the realities which they themselves experienced,” it stated.

Additionally, interviews were conducted across ICT policy and media contexts of these countries under review and on the whole, about 150 persons participated, which included vox pop.

Govt, ATCON tasked on telecom research institute

FEDERAL Government and Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) have been tasked to set up telecom research institute in the country.

Reputed telecom and Internet technologies consultant, Prof. Augustine Odinma, made this call in a paper he presented at the just concluded International Conference and Exhibition on Power and Telecommunications (ICEPT 2005) organised by the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) Electrical Division in Lagos.

Prof. Odinma in the paper titled “Next Generation Networks; Whence, Where and Thence” said most telecom operators in the country are still battling to migrate fully to the enhanced second generation network (2.5G), when discussions on forth generation (4G) network is already gaining currency, globally.

He also said that telecom planners and designers in Nigeria should be proactive and not always playing a catch-up. Noting that the need to recoup investment has led investors into phased migration, “So, rather than moving to third generation (3G), they first migrate to 2.5G and then to 3G”.

Warning that enthusiasm for 3G have been waning due to the data rates observed to be disappointing, “because instead of one standard worldwide, there are three incompatible systems in the United States (US) alone”.

He emphasised at the event that there are two main evolution standards for 3G, namely the Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) and variations of CDMA 2000 with CDMA 2000 1x Evolution Data Optimised (Ev-Do), which were expected to offer higher rate.

But demands for higher rates and non-compatibility of 3G standards have shifted interest to 4G wireless networks, which is expected to support data rates above 100 Mbps, wireless integratible and yet network application independent, he said.

ATCON, he said, is to Nigerian telecom industry what Telecomm Industries Association (TIA) is to US, pointing out that ATCON could get its employees involved in some level of research, “no matter how small it is”.

He lamented that the 4G discussions are currently on without the telcos in the country having any say in it which consequently, means that poor investment decisions would probably be made years to come, out of ignorance.

“The government should be encouraged to set up research bodies, just as the European Union is doing with the European Telecommunications Standard Institute (ETSI),” he said.

Advising NSE, to also raise the awareness on the importance of research in the society and create a forum for competition.

APC stood out amidst competition in third quarter

LEADING end-to-end infrastructure availability solution provider, American Power Conversion (APC), has announced its broad-based recognition across key products and applications in the third quarter of this year, saying it stood out amidst competition.

Vice President, Marketing and Communications at APC, Mr. Aaron L. Davis, said that the company's products for home electronics to desktop PCs to servers and enterprise applications stood out from the competition on factors such as innovation, efficiency, and reliability.

"APC's global offerings provide power protection and availability solutions for applications ranging from home electronics to the largest of enterprise computing needs,” he said.

Champion Infotel recalls that APC in addition to awards for InfraStruXure, cooling, Smart-UPS, Back-UPS, Audio Visual and several mobile accessory offerings, was listed for the sixth consecutive year, by CMP Media LLC's InformationWeek 500, a prestigious listing of most innovative users of information technology in the United States.

Mr. Davis also said, the fact that APC has continued to win such a long list of distinguished awards across markets and applications was indicative of its industry-leading investment, anchored on understanding customer needs and developing products that deliver superior solution.

“While we make great strides in new categories such as data centers, cooling, Audio/Visual and biometric security, we are gratified that our core uninterruptible power supply (UPS) solutions remain tops in the industry," he affirmed

Users and reviewers of APC's server and data center class products, Mr. Davis said, continued to recognize the firm, mostly in the Disaster Prevention and Recovery (DPR) segment of the annual Windows IT Pro "Readers' Choice" awards, which placed APC first and second in the Best UPS category.

He noted that Windows IT Pro readers voted overwhelmingly for APC's InfraStruXure product for Best UPS in the DPR category and went on to describe APC's revolutionary architecture as "not merely a traditional UPS InfraStruXure but an 'on-demand architecture' for ensuring networking availability…” just as APC's Smart-UPS tied on second place in this year's voting, giving the firm a strong one-two performance.
Internationally, UpGrade magazine in Portugal, he disclosed, named InfraStruXure an "Outstanding Product," while in Russia, APC's innovative new InfraStruXure with Integrated Fuel Cells was "Product of the Month" in the July issue of PC Magazine.

DHL customers’ forum gains momentum

DHL’s organised forum for customers nationwide to honour its partners for the year is gaining momentum.

This is coming as the international courier giant, was recently awarded the “Most customer-centric courier organisation in Nigeria” by the Customer Service Group, United States (US).

The series of forum, tagged “Partnering for Success”, commenced earlier last month with a luncheon in Lagos, with top six DHL Nigeria agents, in honour of emerging best performers in the Direct Sales Business Unit of the company for the year 2005.

Country Commercial Manager at DHL, Mr. Grant Mowat, said that this was followed penultimate Wednesday in October, with a breakfast meeting also at the Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja-Lagos, with about 100 customers drawn from the Lagos mainland and Apapa attending.

He pointed out that the train would soon move to Port Harcourt this month, November, where DHL customers in the oil-city would be treated to a dinner preceding the annual DHL Golf tournament slated to hold at the Port-Harcourt Golf Club.

Also, he said, another luncheon is planned for customers located on the Lagos Island, Ikoyi and Victoria Island and would hold at the Eko Hotel in December, as the series would be concluded with a dinner at the Le Meridien Hotel, Abuja.

“We are where we are today because of our customers and we decided to organise formal interactions with them where we will not only say thank you but also hear what they have to say or ask about our services” he explained.

Recalling that at the beginning of the year, DHL had announced solid growth in revenue and shipments for the year 2004 and had organised a national sales conference in January which was followed in February by a management retreat, all aimed at strategizing on how to maintain and improve operational and financial performance.

Corporate results, he said, for the first nine months of the year are encouraging and the company is taking the step of meeting with its customers at different locations around the country seriously.

ITAN advocates ban on fairly used IT device

FOLLOWING last week’s release of the Basel Action Network (BAN) study on electrical and electronic generated waste, otherwise known as e-waste on Lagos, Information Technology (Industry) Association of Nigeria (ITAN), has called for a total ban on importation of ‘second hand’ IT equipment.

This equipment includes Personal Computers (PCs), monitors, television sets (TVs) and cell phones among others.

ITAN is the core IT hardware corporate interest group and a member of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) founded on June 8, 1991 as Micro Computers Vendors' Association of Nigeria (MiVAN and changed to Computer Vendors' Association of Nigeria (CoVAN) in 1996. It later registered in April 2000 as ITAN.

BAN, based in Seattle, United States with coordinating center in Ibadan, Western Nigeria, had in the report of its recent said that Lagos has become a hub for dumping of unrepairable and unmarketable old electronic equipment, namely computers, monitors, TVs and cell phones.

This accounts for 75 per cent of estimated 500 40-foot containers imported monthly, according to the report.

In exclusive online chat with Daily Champion, ITAN president, Mr. Will Anyaegbunam, said though he was aware of junks coming into the country and primarily into the notorious Computer Village Ikeja-Lagos, “it is quite a surprise to me that the figure is as high as 500 containers”.

He advised the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to declare total ban on second hand PCs.

“I think its high time, SON cause a total ban on the importation of these second hand PCs of below a certain thresh-hold specification,” he declared.

Mr. Anyaegbunam also said that as this specification thresh-hold and even an age limit may suffer set back in terms of enforcement, “I would advocate a total ban on second hand IT equipment”.

He insisted that unless for those tested and verified imports meant for donation to educational institutions, “No second hand PCs should be allowed for resale”.

Also commenting on this, the immediate past president of ITAN, Mr. Chris Uwaje, said the problem is not new, pointing out that indeed, there is over 1, 400,000 possible Internet search hits on the topic of computer dumping and toxic wastes around the world.

“But while other nations have developed secured policy framework to safeguard their environment, Nigeria and indeed all of African continent have become a dumping ground,” he asserted.

Mr. Uwaje also cited a case in 1999, at the climax of the Y2K magical saga, when ITAN under his leadership raised the same alarm and wondered why the government is nothing taking this issue seriously as it should.