A bustling computer market in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital, on Monday was allowed to stay in business after pledging to dispose of its dangerous waste properly, traders and officials said.
"We have resolved the problem with the government. The market is in full session now," John Oboro, assistant general secretary of Computers and Allied Products Dealers Association of Nigeria (CAPDAN), told AFP.
Lagos Environment Commissioner Tunji Bello, for his part, said through a spokesman: "The dealers have met us with a promise to do the right thing. We are giving them the benefit of the doubt."
The Ikeja computer market trades mostly in imported second-hand computers, prompting fears of health and environmental hazards because of substances contained in them such as lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium and brominated flame-retardants.
Last week, Bello gave the traders seven days to clean up the market or face indefinite closure.
"The association is working very hard with the relevant authorities to ensure that the market is kept clean at all times," Oboro said, blaming the untidy state of the market on the activities on interlopers "who don't have any shops but litter the streets with their waste and all sorts of products".
Oboro said the dealers were seeking the help of the police and sanitation officials to rid the markets of "these undesirable elements".
In Lagos, the country's most populous city with some 15 million people, hundreds of computers and computer accessories change hands daily in the fast-growing Ikeja market.
Nigeria, Africa's largest consumer market, "is fast becoming a dumping ground for junk and second-hand computers that are not only injurious to our health but constitute an environmental menace," Oludayo Dada, a senior official in the federal environment ministry, told AFP.
