SCRAP DEALERS APPEAL FOR CREDIT (PAGE 29)

THE scrap industry in the Tamale metropolis is one sector that has the potential to address youth unemployment in the metropolis.
However, those in that industry have little or no support to help boost the sector to address the unemployment challenges facing the youth in the area.
Majority of the residents who are into that business claim that they have not regretted for having ventured into that industry although some of them complain of lack of credit facilities from the banks and other financial institutions to boost their business.
For one thing, scrap dealers in the metropolis have indicated that there is the need for a factory to be located in Tamale to recycle the scrap materials into useful items like iron rods and burglar-proof materials.
This, according to the scrap dealers, would help expand the sector, offer employment to many of the youth and also avoid the reported cheating by their customers in Accra anytime they transact business with them.
Some of the scrap dealers also called on the government to promulgate laws that would regulate the activities of scrap dealers and help the industry to grow rather than allow a few people to destroy it.
Forty-year-old Mr Iddrisu Mohammed is one of the scrap dealers in the metropolis who has been in the business for the past 15 years and he admits that it is lucrative.
His business is located along the Water Works road in the metropolis and has six people working under him. His team comprises steel benders and welders who perform other related jobs.
Scrap dealing was not Mr Mohammed’s main profession. He started as a blacksmith and with time decided to venture into the scrap dealing business as well, since he saw that as more rewarding. He, however, combines his two jobs effectively.
What makes Mr Mohammed unique is the way he uses some of the scrap materials to produce cooking utensils, coal pots, iron rods, metal beds, buckets, watering cans, dustbins and rain water harvesting pipes.
Mr Mohammed told the Daily Graphic that he was living comfortably but stressed that one needed not less than GH¢10,000 to start scrap dealing business, as it is capital-intensive.
“The business has been good and over the years our sales have been increasing. I was selling my aluminium cooking bowls, for instance, for 6Gp each last year but now I sell one for GH¢1.00,” he said.
According to him, patronage of the scrap materials including the products he makes himself has been encouraging in the metropolis.
He said he spent between GH¢1,000 and GH¢1,200 to transport a full load of scrap materials on articulated trucks from Tamale to Accra.
On how he obtained his scrap materials, Mr Mohammed said he bought them from mechanics, construction firms, petrol stations and sometimes he travelled to villages to procure them.
“We do not have the requisite machines and factory here in Tamale to recycle the scrap materials into other products”, he bemoaned.
Mr Fatau Imoro, who is affectionately called “Busy Man”, is an assistant to Mr Mohammed who complained bitterly about the alleged cheating of scrap dealers by their customers in Accra during transactions.
“We therefore entreat our colleagues in this business to join hands with us to form a formidable association that would champion our cause and ensure that we have a fair deal on the job market”, he said.