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Uganda's ban on import of used electronic equipment took effect last week - pushed by National Environmental Management Authority (Nema). But it seems that all politics is local, and there is more to the used PC ban than just concern for the environment.

Second hand computers for sale

IT News Africa reports that NEMA has self-serving reasons to be pushing for this ban:

Meanwhile, NEMA plans to build a Shs 300 million electronic waste management centre at Namanve industrial park. “We have around Shs300 million from our environmental fund and we are going to use it to set up the recycling centre”, said NEMA executive director, Aryamanya Mugisha, cited by the Ugandan publication.

NEMA is in discussions with Second Life Uganda, a company based in the Netherlands, to operate the facility, which is expected to come on stream early next year. The facility will store discarded electronic equipment, computers, printers and phones- to be sorted, recycled, re-exported or destroyed in an environmentaly-friendly way.

Yet, there is more than one computer recycling project in Uganda. The Monitor reports that Nema's plans has created some tensions between Uganda's government and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation.

Earlier, Unido selected Uganda as a pilot country for computer refurbishment based on the country's Unido District Business Information centre (DBICs) programme and the government's commitment to developing the ICT sector.

Under the programme, Unido supported a computer refurbishment center operated by Uganda Green Computers Ltd. While Unido is no longer involved with Green Computers, it is planning a similar project with Microsoft Corporation. But in a March 2 letter, Nema asked the secretariat of Basel Convention, a 1992 comprehensive global environmental agreement on trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes, to investigate the Unido-Microsoft project.

It seems NEMA doesn't want competition from Unido. But why did Unido feel they had a green light with Microsoft and now seemingly does not? Check the last line of the article:

Mr Bruno Otto, the head of Unido operations in Uganda, says they were not copied in Nema's letter and the Nema official they dealt with was Mr Onesimus Muhezi, the former director environmental compliance and monitoring, who was recently sacked.

Yep, there was a power struggle within NEMA, Mr. Muhezi lost out, and now his initiatives are facing scrutiny.

Wow! A study conducted by Eco Ethics International in 2007 on the impact of imported second-hand computers in Kenya found that the country generated 3,000 tonnes of e-waste from computers, monitors and printers in 2007.

That's 3 million kilograms of e-waste!

I can't quite get my head around a number that big, but I can understand why Information and Communications PS, Dr Bitange Ndemo is looking to ban used computer imports. Too many of them are becoming e-waste that Kenya cannot recycle.

Read related posts on Used PC's

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Recycled computers have their place - they're great for those with limited means to access ICT. Yet they can often be more harm than help, especially when they're dumped as e-waste or retard local hardware innovation and sales.

Second hand computers for sale

Which is why it seems that Uganda is having so much difficulty banning used computers. They came out with a blanket ban on second-hand PC's last year, with a deadline moved back to March 31, 2010.

Now State Minister for Trade Tourism and Industry Gagawala Wambuzi told The EastAfrican that Uganda is adopting a more targeted approach.

Hopefully this means they'll be looking at the quality and usage model for used electronics - allowing in technology that's actually current and meant for resale, and banning e-dumping.

TechMasai deleted republished this post, but I think its still worthy, so I'm republishing it here. Be sure to also check out the original.

The Negative Effects of All The Used Exported PCs From Europe Which Are Coming To Africa

Used computers from Europe, or from African corporate companies are what Africans have and are starting to use as a way to get on the technological bandwagon. It is not totally clear how old used computers get to Africa, but what is clear is that they are here to stay.

The general consensus is computers are either transported by European officials to Africa to get dumped, or they are imported conscious by a middleman to sell back home.

Once in Africa, the PCs are sold through normal distribution models to the public, at a tenth of the price of a new model. The most prevalent models of CPUs support windows 1995 to Windows XP. The computer monitors most popular is the big screen retro one made famous by windows 1995.

The use of antique computers is not the best solution but is extremely practical. In a population where the average GDP is about 100 dollars, cheap affordable computing is a definitive plus. This is not to say they are no consequences to cheap computers in Africa.

The availability of cheap imported computers in effect strangle a location population of innovators and developers from trying to develop hardware solutions and products to cater for their very own local market. The flood of cheap old laptops gives revenue to the people who sell them to us, but actually hinder innovation and growth in our countries by taking away market share.

In the short term old laptops being sold in Africa have advantages, like

* Cheap affordable hardware to a growing computer literate population
* Revenue and employment to those who work in the industry
* Growing computer proficiency for the local population

In the long term though Africa faces the greatest threat to innovation and development. The continued presence of old reused computers is practical in the short term, but if Africa ever wants to develop our own hardware and provide electronic solutions to a world market, eventually the market will have to be closely monitored.

This article ignored the environmental pollution caused by old reused laptops dumped in Africa. For that is the embedded video