Private Security Guard Companies Scramble for Contracts

Some of the companies are created simply to get money from customers since their boys are not well trained.

Over the last decade, private security guard companies have increased in Cameroon. It is now common to find private security guards at the entrances of big companies, international airports. There are always one or two young men clad in their uniforms standing with batons or walkie talkies. In Douala, customers are free to choose from Zion security, Dak Surveillance security, Security Dog, the defunct Wackenhut which has now become Global Security.

The liberalisation of the sector brought in these companies which now compete for services. Unfortunately, some have imposed themselves and carrying out activities that they are not supposed to undertake. In fact, some of the boys behave as if they were law enforcement officers, replacing the police.

How does one distinguished them from State security officers? Difficult because some of the guard companies have uniforms which look like those of the police corps. The tendency is to deceive some people who are not vigilant enough using the powers of policemen. Even though the presence of these private guards is dissuasive in some areas, they cannot effectively replace police officers in the society. On the contrary, most of them are used in the beginning companies as errand boys or “planton”.

In Douala, the rapid increase in the number of security guards is seen as a lucrative business. First of all, the young men are expected to pay about CFA 40,000CFA or 50,000CFA depending on the position he wants to get the required training. Then the company could get into a contract with an enterprise where they would assign some of the guards depending on the request of that Enterprise.

At the end of the month pay the enterprise pays for the services. The salaries of the security guards are then paid from this amount. Some of the officials of the guard companies do not care about effective training for the guards but they are interested in making quick money and so recruit many without a training plan. A security guard told CT he presented his documents, paid the required sum and he was recruited. Even though, he said his colleagues had to be trained, one month of sports and other pre-military techniques. Most of them he said were just recruited and sent to they duty post. In such cases one would doubt their potentials when they are faced with robbery for instance.

Officials of some security guard companies we contacted declined to explain how they train their boys because according to them exposing their techniques would mean releasing their secrets to the public. They said they have not been authorised to use guns like law enforcement officers to defend themselves, claiming that if they have to release their secrets it would mean they are rendering themselves helpless before their opponents in the case of an attack.

EFFA TAMBENKONGHO