Reeling with the successes and challenges of Metal Scrap industry in Uganda

Eight o’clock on a rainy Friday, many in Kampala like me have woken up to another busy day. I’m combing through the out skirts of Katwe, one of Kampala city slums. My mission is to meet one of the metal scrap dealers in the area for a story. But before I get to my source, two boys looking much young than their actual age capture my attention.

Ssenabulya, 14, and Juma, 16 are carrying pieces of dirty metallic items in their hands. My first imagination is that they are street kids returning from another bag snatching mission, but a closer observation revealed otherwise.

They look innocent and harmless as I approach, although they are dressed in dirty stenchy rugs. Their day had actually started as early as 5; they were to reveal as I learnt from interacting with them. For Senabulya and Juma, it is another morning of endless struggle and toil with few expected returns at the end of the day. Their work is to gather/collect any metallic item disposed off to sell as scrap.

Metal scrap used for manufacturing steel products

Ssenabulya and Juma are part of the steadily growing scrap industry in Uganda, although their welfare does not show any semblance of growth or hope of it, at least judging by their outlook. In their words “hope for a reasonable future rises and sets with sun” as they strive to balance between daily survival challenges to raise reasonable scrap materials for sale. Theirs is an endless search with limited chances to find.

“We have no definite sources for our scrap, we just have to keep moving into the slums checking in the rubbish bin and water trenches,” says a seemingly tired Juma almost inaudible. “It is very dangerous, People think we want to break into their homes. Our fierce tormentors are people working in motor garage, they keep chasing us thinking that we want to steal their spare parts,” quips in a drained looking Ssenabulya.

Just like in many other informal businesses, in scrap business there are no clear laws governing the trade neither is there steady supply or demand according to Jacob Waiswa, a scrap dealer. As a result, boys like Ssenabulya and Juma have to depend on the mercy of intermediate dealers to earn a coin from their sweat.

Like the boys, dealers have their own cries. They prefer talking about the thick and thin of their business lives than what they actually earn from it. Forget the fact that most of them actually seem well off. So what exactly is this metal scrap business that recently attracted the attention of the central government which ordered a stop to unregistered trade in metal scrap? To fully appreciate the dynamic nature of crap business lets start with the mathematics involved in buying and selling scrap and who gains.

According to Akim Mwebaze of J.A scrap dealers, in Nalukolongo (another suburb of Kampala), a kilo of scrap metal goes for 75-90 shillings buying and between 110-140 selling depending on the type of metal the scrap is made of. But contrary to what intermediate dealers say, Ssenabulya and other boys who do the dirty work of scavenging for the scrap under inhuman conditions of Kampala slums say the dealers buy their scrap at 30 or 20 shillings per kilo.

Jackson Kayangire, manager of B.M scrap metal dealers limited in Nalukolongo will not tell you how much he buys or sells his scrap for ‘fear of competition’. The nearer he will come to tell his price is “my price is like that of other dealers” he says. The scrap business is as unpredictable as the dealers themselves are.

Middle to our conversation with Waiswa he suspects that I could be a Kampala City Council official with ultra-motives to over tax his business. “We do not earn a lot of money,” he answers when I asked him how much he pays per kilo of scrap, as a host of hungry looking boys waited in the sides. “You people from KCC just want to over tax us and cripple our businesses,” continues an obviously disturbed Waiswa as he struggled to hook a small sack of scrap on to a weighing scale.

Mwebaze blames the unfair market conditions, which force prices to fluctuate so often. “At times you buy at normal prices (75-90 per kilo) but when you go to sell the Muyindi (Indian) tells you that prices have gone down with out giving any explanation,” says Mwebaze who has been in scrap business for more than five years.

According to Kayangire, the scrap business is not what it was five years ago when he and others were just persuaded to collect scrap and sell at a reasonable fee of 300 per kilo.

“Competition from imported scrap coming from neighboring countries like Burundi, DRC and Rwanda has forced the prices per kilo to a record low,” says Kayangire as he forces a piece of metal from a car body in a sack.

“Their scrap is of good quality and not very old like ours. The Bayindi (Indians) give them preferential prices and pay them first,” laments Kayangire who employs his daughter and one worker. He says that the delay of payment on the side of factories that use the metal scrap is the biggest challenge.

But the unfair prices will not deter Ssenabulya and Juma who are not relatives by the way but joined hands because they were faced with the same enemy-starvation. For the two, they are “earning fortunes compared to our counterparts on streets who depend on dangerous business of begging and pick pocketing,” says Ssenabulya as he takes a step in opposite direction probably indicating that the conversation is over.

So what exactly is metal scrap?

According to Kayangire, the most common ones are Soft aluminum, Hard aluminum, Brush scrap, and steal metal and Copper. “Each of these metals has its own price and the use. Some scrap metals are more useful in terms of product,” says Waiswa as he displayed several pieces of rusty and dark metals for me to see, forget the fact that i could not tell the difference. Waiswa runs a scrap collection center in Katwe.

Metal scrap a booming business

Just like Kayangire and Mwebaze, Waiswa sells his scrap to a string of local industries like Steel Rolling mills, Thembo Steel rolling, Schummuk and export copper to Kenya.

According to the Uganda Investment Authority, Uganda has four steel industries which use metal scrap as their raw material.

Scrap metals are fabricated to make a wide range of products especially construction materials. Kayangire says that steal scrap is used to make steal metal bars, spuare pipes and calt iron. He says that due to shortage of steal minerals the scraps of old steal metals are re-fabricated to make new useful materials.

He says that Soft aluminum is used to make sauce pans, milk cans, angle line bars while Hard aluminum which is the most preferred is used to make spare parts for cars and industrial boilers.

According to Mwebaze, Brush scrap is used to make padlocks, angle line bars, water pipes and brushes while Cooper is mainly exported to Kenya to make electric wires.

To any observer the scrap business has its trials and tribulations but the spirit of hard work exhibited by people like Ssenabulya and Juma represent a future of an industry on its journey to a boom.

Related links

Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries