How did you join the business of buying and selling of gold?
My name is Lawalli Kauran Nomoda, I am an indigene of Zamfra State. I started learning dealing in gold, silver and custome from Abdullahi Fada in 1996 in Kofar Mata Market in Kano. I then came to Kaduna and started selling earrings before I opened my own shop in 2001.
How is gold categorized?
It is categorized based on the refined quality like; 21, 22, 23 and 24 carats. 24 is the best refined quality in Nigerian market. When a 100 gram gold is well refined is can reduce to 90 grams in weight.
The lowest quality are 6, 9 and 14 are the lowest.
0.9 is the least. It is not in vogue here.
White man prefer it.
It can be sold for .9 English is 6,300 naira for a chain. 21. 2.2 15,000 naira.
Duabi is the most exp and the common is 7,500 naira.
22 24 and extra is mostly used byArtab and the rich people here it cosnt 15, 000 nara per gamm times 30 or 300,000 per chain.
Where is the gold market in the world?
The major gold smiths in the world are Indians, followed by Italian and English.
India mine and refine their gold. English Gold is made in refined in Italy. But the major gold market in the world is in Dubai.
How do you know the quality of gold?
We test it by rubbing a stone or tiles, some chemical and some salt to know the quality and determine the carats and weight.
What of silver?
Most Nigerian are fond of buying cheap and fake goods like silver which fades and doesn’t fetch money when it goes to the market later.
The original doesn’t fade. Nigerians don’t buy gold for adornment but for as saving in place of money in times of need.
Silver doesn’t have much demand and quality than gold.
Cheap and local silver is more common as some who have high body temperature of salty or oily sweat have their silver turns black even if it is original. The price of a product made of silver starts from 1,000.
What is Costume jewelry?
It is a fake jewelry made for those who want to where something that looks like real or when a lady may visit an unsafe area where the chain may be stolen. The loser may not feel the lost compared to a real gold or silver.
How do you differentiate from gold and costume?
The dealer knows the difference after spending some time in the trade. Gold trade involves a lot of risks as many of us make a lot of loss before we become authority in the trade. Mastery of the commodity takes years.
Why are Nigerian experts in extracting gold legally and illegally, but cannot refine and make a finished product for export in the world market?
I blame the government solely for the anomaly. They don’t want the poor to be self or gainfully employed. And this can fetch a lot of foreign exchange for Nigeria. Saudi Arabia is not as reach as Nigeria, but even they are diversifying form oil. Dubai has since diversified form petroleum.
So are many oil producing countries. Nigerians are gifted, many of our people are all over the world, but our government is not doing enough to encourage our professionals, technicians among others. Gold can earn a lot of economic boost for the economy. It is wrong that our leaders are just consumers and spenders of petro dollars abroad without considering the fall of the price of petrol in the world market.
Where do you go to buy?
We buy Gold from Dubai and make some little gains from selling the commodity. Dubai gold merchants buy the gold from India and other places in large stock and sale in small quantity to others.
Nigeria can defend solely on gold and make a lot of revenue from foreign exchange. Many people will come to Nigeria to buy and export. Nigerian traders don’t like going to India as the government is involved in the trade. It is risky dealing in gold in India by a Nigerian.
Do you buy raw gold here and sale in Dubai?
Yes. I started engaging in the trade of buying raw here and exporting to Dubai. I have even bought form Mali and Niger republic and sold abroad.
Why is it that women mostly deal in gold?
There are three reasons for that. One, women buy for affluence among peers as a means to show off. Two, to as a collateral when they want to raise money in a haste, they sale the gold, as if she keeps the money, lender may borrow and avoid repaying. Three, gold can be traded for another gold whether cheap of expensive.
Gold dealers scramble for little profits, as when I have a customer that wants to sale gold worth two millions and I will make twenty naira per gram and I don’t have raw cash, I will contact another buyer who will give me the money to seal the deal and go home smiling.
Do you use receipts?
Yes we do, but 95 % of women in Kaduna don’t keep receipts. When they come to sale and you ask them of receipt, they will swear that they don’t know where it is, but knows where the gold is. They will tell you that they bought it from you. And of course they are known to me. But 85% of Kano women keep their receipt intact.
How do you deal with gold thieves?
We look carefully at the seller to ascertain if she can own such an expensive gold that she has offered to sale. Dealers don’t buy stolen gold as it can lead to serious trouble with the police, union and lots more. Or you try and ask him to present receipt, if not you tell him that you are not buying.
Or you ask him how much he bought it as we know the value of old and new gold. If the gold is 200,000 and he said 20,000 you will say you aren’t buying to be free from legal case. But if she passed the test, we buy from the owner and give her a replacement.
Do you your customers use Point of Sale, POS?
Nobody has ever used it in my shop. Because people are pressed, they don’t have money to shop for gold. But we have bumper sales during the reign of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Umary Yar’adua.
Is it true that Women sit in gold shops in Kaduna and bargain for hours?
Yes. They do. You know women what to bargain and test and look at the mirror and bargain before she pays, sometimes it takes hours to seal a deal. You have to be patient.
Men don’t deal with us. Our major customers are Women, except those who escort their wives. I am advising women to be keeping the receipt to ease further transactions.
Have you ever suffered any nasty experience in this gold trade?
My nasty experience was in Bakin Asibiti when only two people were dealers of gold then, they were Alhaji Tukur and Hassan Seti. Gold was then 600 naira per gram. I was once jailed in Gwauron Dutse Police Station in Kano, when Supretendant Bala Gwauron Dutse was the Divisional Police Officer. That taught me a lesson to use receipt always.
Do you leave your bags as luggage when boarding a plane, or you carry them along into the plane as handheld?
Gold is accepted all over the world, and dealers guard their goods as handheld. And are very careful in transit, we hold our bags strapped to our body for safe keeping.
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