Agency seeks proper registration, licensing of private guard companies

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) says all Private Guards Companies (PGCs) must be duly registered and licensed if the industry is to be purged of quacks.

Mr Nathaniel Ubong, the Assistant Commandant-General in charge of PGCs made the remark on the sideline of a Security Management Training for directors and senior managers of private security firms on Tuesday in Abuja.

"No organisation shall provide the services of watching, guarding or conveying of cash from one position to the other or providing services of anything that has to do with security, except that organisation is registered and has been licensed in accordance with the law of the federation to provide such services.

"The NSCDC has been mandated by law to provide training facilities, monitor, supervise and ensure that the PGCs operate in accordance with the norms of the service that was established by law.

"It is in this respect, that we organise programs of training and re-training for directors, managers and of course for even the guards that provide the services to these companies to ensure that they operate in accordance with the services provided by government in accordance with the law.

"We will continue to do this to ensure that they are able to contribute their own quota to national security.”

He noted that over 2,500 PGCs had so far been registered in the country, adding that some others were still undergoing various processes of registration and licensing.