BusinessDay 04 Feb 2018

Sunday 04 February 2018
C002D5556
BD SUNDAY 9
NewsFeature
Ahmed Muhammed’s scrap site in Trans Amadi
Survival from scrap heaps: Tales
of Port Harcourt ‘scavengers’
INNOCENT IWARA
Nigeria is said to have a vast
steel market of over N887billion
but Port Harcourt-based
Ahmed Muhammad and his
ilk struggle all night but cannot
fill more than 300,000 tons out of the
25million tons needed per annum.
The saying that “there’s dignity in
labour” holds sway for Muhammad
and several others like him. So looking
tattered, equipping himself every night
with a touch light and a metal rectangular
truck, heading direct to heaps of solid
waste around Port Harcourt is a noble
venture.
“I am not ashamed,” he said, in a mixture
of barely mustered grammar and
Pidgin English. “I survive picking from
the trash,” he emphasised with an air of
pomposity.
Kayode Fayemi, minister of Solid Minerals
Development, said in April 2016 that
“Nigeria spends about $4.5 billion (N887
billion) annually on importation of basic
metals, made up of processed steel, aluminium
products and associated derivatives
consumed in the country.”
Fayemi was guest at the foundationlaying
ceremony of the ultra-modern
Steel Melt Shop in Ilorin, Kwara State.
So with Nigeria currently producing
an insignificant 300, 000 tons of steel
against an annual consumption rate of
25million tons, the business of metal
scrap recycling is never more needed
than now. Muhammad is not just helping
in this regard; he is also making a fortune
for himself.
A native of Kaduna State, when he left
Plateau State where his family resides,
and came to Port Harcourt in 2003, he
had one thing in mind - to succeed against
all odds doing whatever he considered
honourable.
For eight years, he traded on perishable
goods such as fresh tomatoes, sweet
and Irish potatoes, onions and sugar cane.
But those years were efforts in futility
as his capital dwindled and became as
perishable as the goods he sold.
“When I was in the perishable goods
business, I could not save money. Before
I could finish selling, the goods perished
and I lost money,” he said with a whiff of
relief from his raspberry lips.
In 2011, Muhammad, who is in his
forties, received advice from an acquaintance
he now calls “my godfather” and
that was enough to change his state and
estate: “He told me ‘come and enter this
scrap business’. He had been into the business
for long and he deals directly with
“There is always market for
this product. Depending on
the capital available, within
a month or two, you can
gather a full truck of scrap,
which can contain as little
as 15 tons or as high as 40
tons, depending on the
weight of the materials”
the company that buys and recycles the
scraps. That is how I started.”
From solely scavenging for metal
scraps (aluminium, brass, copper, amongst
others) at night from solid heap sites,
Muhammad has assumed the sobriquet,
“Chairman”, which means he now has a
large site in Port Harcourt’s Trans Amadi
Industrial estate where he stores heaps
of metal scrap, and has since evolved
into having “boys” who also scout for the
material and sell back to him at a price of
N35 per kilogram.
Within a space of one month at least,
and two months at most, Muhammad
could gather between 15 and 40 tons
of metal scrap, depending on the metal
quality - which in turn defines weight.
The result is that some millions hit his account
regularly after selling to recycling
companies. He said a ton of the scrap goes
for as high as N80, 000.
“There is always market for this product.
Depending on the capital available,
within a month or two, you can gather
a full truck of scrap, which can contain
as little as 15 tons or as high as 40 tons,
depending on the weight of the materials,”
he said.
Today, Muhammad is not just living
comfortably in Port Harcourt, but his
nuclear family of seven (six children and
a wife) back in Plateau are feeling the
bubbles of good life.
“Really, all my children are in school.
This year, I paid N620, 000 for my children’s
school fees alone. The house they
live in, in Jos is my own; I bought it from
my former landlord. The business has
really helped me.”
Also into the business is Abuja-born
Auwlu Mohammed. Unlike Ahmed
(Muhammad) who has generated a
capital that affords him the leverage of
buying scrap from other scavengers and
selling in bulk to recycling companies,
Auwlu gathers the materials and sells
to the likes of Ahmed. Yet, he believes
the scrap-gathering business requires a
person defying shame and wearing the
necessary guts; hence, he is not without
testimonies.
“I feel good doing this business. I started
it two years ago. From this business I
got married, invested and bought three
rams, two cows and one goat. All I do every
morning is pray, eat and start moving
around looking for scraps. I gather them
from waste and also buy from people who
want to dispose their scrap,” 27-year-old
Auwlu and father of one said.
World over, environmental concerns,
health impact and economic benefits have
taken the clamour for waste recycling to
higher dimensions. Metal scrap is only
one of the many wastes being recycled,
with others including: usable goods, paper,
glass, ceramics, textiles, plant debris,
plastic, wood and others.
From increasing gross domestic
product (GDP) to creating employment,
from curbing greenhouse emissions to
managing daily generated solid waste;
what shame is there if gathering scraps
of any kind would not only add to the
GDP but also put money into one’s
pocket?
And as Fayemi pointed out, “The local
steel industry is under-developed and
currently being fed largely by steel scrap,
in line with the ministry’s Road Map and
Federal Government backward integration
initiative.”
“The best thing to do is to endure, humble
yourself and do what can bring you
money,” Muhammed (Ahmed) advised.