To meet rising demand for tokunbo auto components and increase profit margins, many traders have taken to refurbishment of scraps, GEOFF IYATSE reports
At about 8am on Monday, as one gazed across a canal that crisscrosses the Ladipo International Auto Part Market to observe activities going on, its gentle-flowing water came to focus. And there was something unfamiliar with the river that flows down from Ilupeju, traversing Ladipo, before making a detour towards FESTAC town. It was unusually clean and had less grease and oil to contend with.
About three hours later, when the market and the ‘manufacturing’ shops that lie along the canal had fully opened for business, the water changed to brown liquid. And by 3pm, something else had replaced it – it was a current of greasy fluid. A few motor parts dealers had jumped into the channel to wash assorted worn-out components. The parts would be refurbished and taken to the shops for sale to unwary customers.
The polluted water is the first victim of the massive recycling activities that take place at different junkyards in the market, a development that has assumed a curious dimension in the past few years. While recycling may be a global standard for managing waste, Ladipo auto dealers, indeed, have redefined the term.
With crude techniques, the dealers rework unserviceable automobile metals and pass them on as fairly-used (popularly known as tokunbo) components. Investigation shows that reworked scraps constitute, at least, 80 per cent of the parts now sold at the market, thereby clouding out valuable products.
The development, which some dealers admitted was unethical, has become worrisome to both users and genuine parts traders. Those who have monitored the trend said it raised questions on the sustainability of the flourishing second-hand automobile market in the country.
At Ladipo, arguably one of the largest of its kind in Africa, hundreds of young boys eke out a living by converting, through tortuous processes, completely knocked down components to spare parts.
Most of the artisans who have turned the market to a vast ‘manufacturing’ site, it was learnt, have no relevant skills in the highly-technical field they have gone into. They are either secondary school dropouts or chaps who missed out in other life endeavours. Sources said they came to the market as hustlers but took to recycling as supply continued to fall short of the demand for spare parts.
Another sets of engine blocks being repaired at Itire
“About 15 years ago when I secured my first shop in the market, there was nothing like refurbished parts. Nobody had the time to rework scraps with the motive of reselling them. But with the growth of unemployment, strange people began to flood the market. They started as middle men, and moved on to phony activities such as rebuilding of warn-out parts,” Emeka Ezelu, a dealer in Toyota engine parts, observed.
Another trader, Tochukwu Peters, said those who are involved in the sharp practice had no form of training in the handling and repair of auto parts. He added that many of them relied on trial-and-error methods.
In Lagos, it is an all-comers craft
On a daily basis, diverse groups toil on open spaces at the expansive market, using diverse metal tools and fire to make out something from scraps.
In the automobile ‘business’, the only tools a new entrant needs to start are hammers, chisels, pliers, spinners and, perhaps, a collection of iron beams.
Asked how they got involved in the business, many said they started as mechanics or blacksmiths but delved into their new-found vocation when they were no longer getting satisfaction from their previous engagements.
Kasim Ayodele said he relocated to Lagos State from Ondo State where he worked with his late diesel merchant father. On arrival, he narrated, “I joined my friend who was a mechanic at Ojuelegba. But we had a disagreement after two months. That was what informed my coming to Ladipo.”
With a two-month apprenticeship in a roadside mechanic garage and none in spare parts repair, Ayodele has assumed responsibility for a shop where steering racks (complex auto control components) and shock absorbers are fixed. He also, occasionally, does drive conversion, an equally skill-demanding undertaking.
Hakeem Oshofa may not be as ‘qualified’ as Ayodele. In short, he never had a stint in automobile repair before coming to Ladipo. Yet, his lack of relevant experience could not deter him from going into the most delicate system in automobile – brake components. And on a daily basis, droves of auto parts traders flock around him to have their problems fixed.
Perhaps, the background of Chibuzor Ibokwe vis-à-vis the service he provides is most illuminating of what Ladipo has become. He joined his uncle’s shop as a trainee trader about a decade ago when he arrived from Abia State with a junior secondary education. He said he had studied how his boss converted gear boxes to suit other brands of cars. His observation, which is the only ‘training’ he has received since then, lasted for five years after which he left to start his own style of alteration.
With his defective training, young Ibokwe hangs around the market in expectation that somebody with a need of unavailable or expensive gear box will come his way. And they do come for him daily.
He told our correspondent that there was no gear box challenge he could not resolve. He said most of his jobs came from parts sellers who had problems with imported components.
How Ibokwe identifies a gear system that is compatible with another car it was not manufactured for is a mystery even to him. But he said he knew when he loosed the gear box. And he claimed that different versions of a brand used the same gear, saying the differences were mostly in their seats.
A recycling site at Ladipo
For instance, Toyota Camry 1992 to 2004 models, according to him, use the same gear system but assembled in different cases to suit the unique designs of the models. He said he had successfully used the 1992 model gear to fix that of 2002 model when the owner of the latter could not afford the price.
Indeed, Ibokwe’s ingenuity provides ‘solution’ but a temporary one. Sources said those who had patronised his strange remedy returned with complaints after two or three weeks when the guarantee would have expired.
At Ladipo, there may not be anything like a useless part anymore. What motorists or mechanics dispose of are picked, dusted and taken to workshop to be refurbished. In fact, the operators have started gambling with reinventing complete vehicles if they are not doing that already. It is no longer abnormal to see vehicle chassis brought to the market for reassembling.
Our correspondent learnt, during a visit on Wednesday, that suspension, steering and underneath parts constitute close to 90 per cent of the items that are refurbished at the Ladipo sites. Hence, shock absorbers, tie rods, suspension links, steering racks, shafts and beam axles are the most common items found at those sites.
Yet, shops that specialise in gear boxes, engine blocks, fuel pumps, air-condition compressors, ignitions, fuel injectors and similar components are not in short supply.
Sadly, refurbished shock absorbers are now so common at the market that an average trader sifts through several dozens of the components to fish out one or two that have yet to be tampered with. The rest are those that have been re-gassed and coated with black oil to look like imported used ones.
According to Clement Uzor, a trader in the market, the problem has got to a point when a component is recycled three or more times in a year.
“What they do is that they go back to mechanics to pick the parts removed from cars and take them to the workshops where they rework and sell them to ignorant customers.
“A mechanic who sells a condemned shock absorber for N1,000 will come back after it has been re-gassed to buy it for N5,000. Some of them know what they are buying but go ahead because they are not the ones that will use them,” Uzor observed.
The market authority has recognised the act not only as a dent on the business but also as a threat to its (the market’s) survival. Public Relations Officers of the Ladipo Central Executive Committee, Onyeka Igwe, told our correspondent that the group was fighting hard to contain the problem.
The effort, he said, was, however, curtailed by the physical nature of the market. Supposing it was a purpose-built facility, he said, it would be easier for the association to monitor what individual traders were into and regulate them.
Refurbishment, a national threat
Ladipo is not alone in the abyss of local part refurbishment. Several young boys doing similar jobs are also holed up in the Volkswagen auto parts market at Itire, Surulere; the Oyingbo Honda parts market and other small centres where fairly-used parts are sold. At mechanic sites located at different parts of Lagos, it is also a growing phenomenon.
Unfortunately, it is a Lagos problem. At Upper Iweka area of Onitsha, the commercial nerve of Anambra State; Benin, Edo State and Ekette, Akwa Ibom State, there are sprawling sites where dead parts are refurbished through similar crude methods.
Users rue financial loss
As smart traders ‘refurbish’ their way to wealth, motorists, who are the ultimate losers, are recounting the woes.
Narrating his ordeal, Simon Adeleye, a middle-aged lawyer, recalled the frustration he suffered following the purchase of his Volkswagen Passat early this year. Unknown to him, the gear box and the rear shock absorbers of the car were bad. His efforts to replace them marked the beginning of his woes.
“I have changed the gear box twice yet there is no improvement. Now, I don’t know exactly what to do. Somebody told me recently that I could use Golf 3 to rework it since it is cheaper. My challenge is not the cost but getting a good one.
“I gave up on the shock absorbers because it appears stupid to continue to fret over damaged suspension when the car cannot even cover 100 kilometers because of its sluggish transmission,” Adeleye lamented.
For three years, Bright Omar, a book marketer, had contemplated buying a used car but his plan was stuck by indecision and fear – fear of unexpected breakdown and high maintenance cost. Eventually the very things he feared came with a Mitsubishi brand he bought late last year. He got delivery of the second-hand car but the steering rack needed replacement.
Omar said he had changed the component three times before he realised the mechanic was buying re-worked ones. He eventually solved the problem but not without spending over 400 per cent of what the repair would have cost him supposing there were no many dead parts in the market.
Underlying factors
Arthur Chedu, an investment expert in automobile economics, said the shrewd practice is driven by poor standisation. He noted that over 90 per cent of car users opted for tokunbo parts, a reason recycling has become a flourishing business.
“If nobody buys fairly-used parts, do you think those boys will be playing those kinds of tricks? When you have the sort of poor standard-setting-and-implementation system we have in the auto part market, you should naturally expect what we have. Is there any other country that relies on tokunbo parts the way we do?” he asked.
The poverty, unemployment factor
Another analyst, John Akabi, attributed the problem to poverty and unemployment. He said nobody would work under the kind of debilitating condition those who indulge in it face to earn peanuts if there were sufficient jobs.
It was learnt that some motorists go to the market requesting reworked parts (which they loosely refer to as second-grade). Dealers said some categories of customers, especially commercial and private drivers, requested the lower-grade parts because they were cheaper.
Inconsistent policies also fuel the practice
The challenge may have also been compounded by lack of consistency of related policies. When, some years ago, the current administration increased the age limit of imported used cars, Oseme Oigiagbe, the chairman of the Automobile and Transport Group of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, had expressed worry that the decision would compound the maintenance capacity.
A trader at Itire, Chibuzor Chigozie, on Wednesday, made an observation that appeared to have confirmed the fear. He said some of the cars currently being imported had been phased out in Europe and America. Hence, he said, affected cars could only be serviced with recycled parts, as imported ones were no longer available. He said several models manufactured in early 1990s had been affected.
According to a consultant to the Economic Community of West African States, Dr. Ken Ife, there may not be respite in sight as Nigeria, on an annual basis, smuggles 400,000 cheap second-hand cars from Cotonou, the Republic of Benin, in addition to the 200,000 brought into the country from regular routes.
He also noted that the increase in duty on spare parts would exacerbate the challenge.
Ife, however, said ingenuity in fabrication of spare parts should be encouraged through funding and provision of relevant machines to guarantee accuracy.
Bright Omodia, a Lagos-based clearing agent, said there had not been increase in duty on second-hand parts, which he said had remained at about 20 per cent in recent times. Yet, some traders claimed that it was now more expensive to do the business than it was previously. They regretted that customers were not ready to pay higher despite the obvious increase in the landing cost of the products.
Harrison Emeka said many of his colleagues might have resolved to sell refurbished parts alongside genuine ones to reduce the losses they could incur dealing with only “directly-imported goods.”
According to experts, the new tariff structure, which increases duty/levy on imported FBU from 22 per cent to 70 per cent, will reduce affordability of new cars and increase reliance on old ones.
Already, the relationship between new and used cars is largely disproportionate and even widening. Official statistics from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment puts the ratio at five to 95 per cent in favour of used cars.
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