Ex-Digicel staff now fixes broken electronic gadgets

By JIMMY KALEBE
A FORMER employee of the Digicel PNG’s Lae branch has ventured into running his own business.
Ben Binabe, from Sinasina in Chimbu, said he was one of the first persons to be engaged by Digicel to repair phones and other headsets when the mobile phone operator entered the country in 2006.
Binabe is now one of the leading persons in Lae who repairs mobile phones, tablets and other electronic devices.
“After leaving my job with Digicel, I ended up in Top Town Lae streets armed with my little screw drivers and other tools to fix people’s phones and other electronic devices,” he said.
“My main concern here is that we are providing a vital service to the people and the city authority should help us by allocating a proper place to do our business.”
He said the current location at the main urban PMV stop was fine but people like him were occasionally being chased away by police and other opportunists.
“Instead of chasing us around, the city council and police should find a suitable location for us,” he said.
“We are doing is what everyone wants.”
Currently, one can hardly finds parts for electronic devices such as mobile phones, so Binabe buys
old phones for about K20 to get parts.
He has been in this business for over a decade now and wants the authorities to help him and other struggling entrepreneurs.