The National Association of Scrap Waste Dealers and Employers of Nigeria has complained that the ban slammed by the Borno State government on metals scrap scavenging and trade across the state has thrown over 300,000 of its members out of business and livelihood.

NAWSDEN said the ban had also considerably slashed the volume of metal scraps flowing across Nigeria by halting the transborder trade and the flow of the commodity into the country from Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Sudan.

The Borno State government, on July 10, 2023, slammed the ban on metal scraps scavenging on the allegation that the scavengers steal metal valuables from homes, government offices and private establishments.

“This ban, which is now 10 months old, has thrown over 300,000 of our members out of business and livelihood,” Alhaji Aminu Hassan Soja, the president of the association in charge of the northern states, said in Maiduguri on Sunday.

Soja was supervising the distribution of Ramadan palliatives to 250 families of the now idle scavengers.

“These 300,000 are only the scavengers, buyers of the scraps and dealers. Consider how larger the population would be if we take stock and include their family members and other dependants,” he said.

Soja acknowledged that the state government took the decision in the interest of the state, arguing, however, “because of the misdeeds on just one per cent of a group of people, you cannot slam a blanket punishment on ninety-nine per cent of the people.”

He implored Governor Babagana Zulum to, “in the spirit of the Ramadan fast,” lift the ban to enable the scavengers and their dealers to return to business to earn their livelihoods.

“We plead with Zulum to design a legally approved system of operation for the metal scrap trade, gather the traders to a meeting and roll out to them all dos and don’ts to ensure that they do not violate the law,” Soja advised.

“Billions of naira collected in Maiduguri from Kano and other states of Nigeria used to be distributed to the neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, and even as far as Sudan and Central African Republic for large supplies of scrap metals amounting to about 40,000 tonnes daily before the ban.

“Now this business has completely been halted; and it has largely slashed the volume of the scraps flowing from the northern states to the South for processing and recycling,” Soja said.

He said to forestall the ban in other northern states, the association had raised a task force in every state to screen supplies of the scraps in every market to ensure that they were not stolen before the dealers were issued the permit to buy them.