“We must travel because travel is a source of inspiration. It is undoubtedly this saying that animates many young Nigeriens and leads them to embrace adventure. Illo Tanko was one of them. Now in his fifties, he had left his village to go to Algeria with the aim of doing business there. But, once there, Illo Tanko, will change his mind, from trading he moves to the maintenance of electronic devices such as humidifiers and fans.

It is with a smiling face that Illo Tanko received Dialogue Migration in his humidifier and fan repair workshop located in Niamey, the Nigerien capital. We found him among the wreckage of old humidifiers and fans, sitting on a stool, screwdriver in hand.

How did he get into this business? “I didn’t learn the trade from anyone. I’m a do-it-yourselfer who evolved,” he explains with pride. 

The dawn of a new profession and a new life

It all started for Illo in the 1990s during a stay in Tamanrasset, Algeria. There, with some of his comrades, he managed stores selling electronic devices such as fans and humidifiers. “We used to buy fans and humidifiers from Nigeria to sell them in the city of Tamanrasset”, he explains. 

From time to time, customers would bring them back appliances that had broken down. “I then noticed that the number of defective machines was increasing, so I said to myself why not try to fix them myself? That’s how I got into DIY,” he remembers. 

The beginning was not easy for him. “The first time, often it works and other times I miss the shot. But with determination, I never got discouraged. Over time, I ended up perfecting my skills and I even repaired the fans and humidifiers of some of the store’s neighbors,” he recalls.

The return to the country and the beginning of a new career

In 2002, Illo Tanko, until then living in Algeria, decided to return to the country and launch his workshop. He decides to settle in the capital Niamey where he owns a house that he bought thanks to savings during his stay in Algeria. He decided to set up his workshop on that property.

Since 2002, he has trained four young people. “They have learned and mastered the trade like me,” he says. Some of the young people he trained work with him as assistants and others are working on their own. “Currently, I have other young people who are apprentices,” explains Illo Tanko.

Among the young people trained by Illo and who continue to work with him is Attahirou, who is about 27 years old and who, after dropping out of school in his village at a very young age, arrived in Niamey and was entrusted to Illo as a trainee. Attahirou is the head of his family today and i is, he says, thanks to the trade that Illo taught him. 

I dropped out of school at an early age,” he says, “in my village after working in the fields we have no other concerns and we have to be productive to support ourselves. That is why I came to Niamey and my tutors introduced me to Illo. Today I work with him as an assistant and it is thanks to this job that I earn enough to take care of myself and my family”, explains Attahirou.

Today, Illo Tanko’s goal is to train more young people in his trade. In this way, he hopes to make his modest contribution in the fight against youth unemployment.