The Monitor (Kampala)
23 June 2009
According to the recently read budget, used computers will no longer be seen in our shops after the three-month grace period has elapsed. Over the past decade, computer literacy has risen sharply. It is being taught in primary school, used in digital music and video businesses, in secretarial bureaus, and Internet cafes.
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The simple truth is that most of the population in developing countries cannot afford a computer. Reusing working used computers at low pricess offer access to IT to a huge swath of people all over the world.
We supply used computers from the UK to 52 countries across the world, including 14 in Africa. All of the equipment that we supply is between 2 and 6 years old and is fully functional. It sells at prices between 5% and 25% of new equipment. It is perfectly useable equipment in both commercial and personal environments with 40% of our product still being sold in the UK.
It is important that governments recognise the difference between this activity and the illegal activity of "dumping". The legitimate trade in working used machines has many beneficial affects. It provides access to IT skills in general; it gives an early entry for business to IT efficiencies; it broadens the IT skills base, both in schools and business; it creates new businesses and jobs; and it provides stable commercial businesses to manage used IT of all kinds at the end of its life - a challenge shared by all countries.
The processes exist to treat non-working IT material, and the best involve the dismantling of the units. The various materials generate two revenue streams - as working components and as sorted feedstock for recycling. At the outset this is a low tech business, which develops in sophistication as you seek to re-use more and more of the components.
We have established a business in the UK which manages all of our waste material in this way. It is profitable in its own right. If it can work in the UK, it should work anywhere.
The illegal trade in failed used IT, a lot of which is shipped from Western Europe, is something that should be tackled for what it is - an illegal activity. It should not be lumped together with the legitimate business in used IT. A total ban will not stop the crooks, but it will stop the good guys, and all of the benefits they bring.
Overall it will put countries in a slower lane in the use of IT in general and the creation of IT related employment.