Alh. Kazeem Olasunkanmi Alominle is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kazoalo Technology Locks and Keys, a company that is in the business of repairing locks and keys and importing and selling of the products in the country. He is also the National President of the Professional Association Locksmith of Nigeria. In this interview with IKECHI NZEAKO, he speaks on the roles locksmiths play and contributions to the Nigerian economy. Excerpts:
How did you get into the business of locks and keys?
I trained under a master for a number of years and I have attended many courses and improved my skills over the years.
What exactly do locksmiths do?
Our business has to do with locks; home locks, office locks, shop locks, car locks, safe locks and other.
Our business has to do with anything that concerns locks and keys. We fix key and repair keys and locks that have been damaged. We also duplicate and sell keys.
We recommend to customers what type of locks and keys to buy; we do this based on the area the customer resides and where their office is located. If someone lives in an area like Lekki, Lagos, we will recommend the kind of locks that will not be damaged easily by water.
We import and sell locks; we want to bring in a company that can collaborate to produce locks and locks in Nigeria, we are working towards it. We also want to partner with a private company or government.
We have people we can relate with in China, India and Europe and others; to build a factory is not just a day’s job.
What is the process of becoming a certified locksmith?
You have to train under a certified locksmith; sometimes we train people for two years, one year, six months, it depends on the person. There are some processes that you have to go through before you become a certified locksmith.
After training, they take your fingerprint, you have to be cleared by the police that you have no criminal record and this because the job has to do with security because if you are a locksmith, there is hardly any lock you cannot be able to work on. For you to get access to anybody’s lock, it must be clear that you have no criminal record.
After that, you apply to become a member. The laws that cover someone to carry firearms also guide us to carry lock tools. So you must be cleared by the police that you have no criminal record.
After that, you apply to become a member of the locksmith association; you have to register your company under the Corporate Affairs Commission, then you produce a guarantor. You have to fill a form.
The association has a screening committee and if they are satisfied, you will be given the certificate that you have been certified.
After being certified, you register, you become an associate; if you do well, after five years, you become a member. After another five years, become a full member. Then after another five years, you become a fellow.
Do you work with the police since your work has to do with security?
We work with the police; the Nigerian Police has designed a form for us which we call indemnity form.
The form is more or less like a bilateral agreement between the person that is working and the person they are working for.The owner of the key or safe will sign that he authorised the smith to duplicate the key.
This is to protect the smith in case a crime is committed by the owner of the duplicated key or lock. The smith should be security conscious and should be able to pick some information when the owner of the key or lock is filling the form.
Another thing, you do not duplicate a key for a teenager, you only work for an adult and locksmiths do not work in late hours; you work at the government hours; you start operating by 8 am, you close, maybe by six. If you work in the night, you are more less a criminal
How do you assess the growth and development of your sector in the country?
In Nigeria, we have graduates that are not able to get a job but I can tell you that we have more than 100 graduates in our association and of them are my customers.
Some of them came to my office to do one job and along the line they appreciated the job, got trained and are doing well.
Some people have a brother, or a sister that have been seeking a job and they approached me and asked can you help me? I have a brother or a sister that is looking for this white collar job. I don’t know if you can help me train them. I have trained many and they are doing fine.
As long as you have knowledge of computer science, you can be trained to become a locksmith. I know about three or four or five people that studied computer science that are now locksmiths.
To make life easy for them, if you tell me where you live, I will look for a member that is close to them.
They charge you, how much they would collect to train you, and those that have been trained are doing fine.
We diagnose the fault of cars and those that studied computer science are good to go. So when they train for like two years, they will be perfect on the job. If the government can partner us, graduates will thrive because all the things have to do with machinery.
But, the government has not empowered locksmiths in Nigeria.
What security tips will you give to your members?
We do not just give certificates to anybody; the person must have integrity; the Nigerian Police have to certify that you have no criminal record; so we will have confidence in the person we are admitting.
We let them know the consequences of being involved in any criminal activity, we don’t pray for it, but if it happens, we are going to retrieve our certificate from you.
Do you have your members across all the states of the federation?
We have them across the states; when I became the national president, I traveled across Nigeria to ensure that we have functional offices across the states. We talk to some on the phone call, video.
What advice do you have for the Nigerian youths?
They should learn a trade that will help you put food on their table. They should not engage in criminal activities.
They should learn a trade and stop thinking about leaving the country. I started learning this job when I was young and I am doing well and I am the national president of our association.
Young people should not destroy their futures because they want quick money. They should be patient and work hard and things will work out for them. The country is tough now but I believe that things will get better.
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