Lack of Training, Certification and Education
One other major challenge of private security companies in Nigeria is lack of adequate training of their staff (Abrahamsen & Williams, 2005; Macucci, 1998). There is a general believe that private security guards are poorly educated, school dropouts and indiscipline and lacking knowledge of the industrial security practice. It is important to know that the fact that someone is an ex-military, police or any of the government security outfits does not confer a pre-requisite knowledge to operate an industrial security company. The training, knowledge, operational base/site and practice of public policing are entirely different from that of industrial security. Therefore, for anyone to venture into industrial security practice, there is need to blend the knowledge acquired from public police practice with the principles and practice to be acquired from industrial security training in order to be competently qualified professionally to establish and own a private security company (man-guarding) in Nigeria. This is currently lacking in Nigeria due largely to government lackadaisical attitude towards the activities and practice of the private security sector. Most private security companies are always in the habit of recruiting people as guards with very little or no training. Many of the private security guards only certify their guards of physical fitness as prerequisite for their recruitment without providing them with any kind of training. In cases where trainings are given, it is ad hoc and perhaps inadequate to expose the guard to the actual job requirement. Aside from the above problems, an important issue which is a great concern to private security companies is the lack of a body responsible for the certification of private security operators (especially the directors and managers), which makes it possible for every Dick and Harry to float a PSC without proper pre-requisite knowledge and understanding of industrial security. Plessis (2013) contends that certification would essentially comprise a process whereby private security companies submit an application to a certification body, showing that they are in compliance with the standards in the Code of Conduct. Those companies that fulfilled these requirements would be issued a certificate, which would act as a ‘stamp of approval’ that the private security outfit is tested, suitable and competent to render security services to the public. An auditing team could then periodically evaluate this certification to ensure they are being adhered to by PSCs. By only hiring such companies, the public; especially beneficiaries of PSC services are assured they have hired competent and capable hands to tackle their security related issues.