Start with the licence
In Nigeria, private guard companies are licensed by the Federal Ministry of Interior and supervised by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps. Ask any prospective provider for their Private Guard Company licence and confirm it is current. A company that cannot show you its licence should not be guarding your premises.
Ask how officers are vetted
The guard at your gate is the single biggest variable in your security. A serious company runs identity checks, guarantor verification, criminal record checks and reference checks on every officer before deployment, and keeps those records on file. Ask to see the vetting process in writing.
Look at the training
Induction training before first deployment, plus regular refresher training, should be standard. Ask who delivers it and what it covers: access and door control, patrolling, incident and occurrence reporting, emergency and fire procedures, customer relations and, for higher-risk sites, counter-terrorism awareness.
Check supervision and response
Guards perform to the standard their supervisors set. Ask about the ratio of supervisors to officers, how often posts are visited, and whether there is a 24-hour control room. If you need mobile response, ask for realistic response times to your location and how vehicles are tracked.
Confirm the commercials
A price that looks too good usually means officers are underpaid, undertrained or stretched across too many posts. Confirm what is included, how overtime and public holidays are handled, and what insurance cover is in place. Get the scope, the reporting lines and the escalation process written into the service agreement.
A simple test
Visit a site the company already guards, unannounced if you can. Look at the officer’s turnout, whether they follow access procedure with you, and whether the occurrence book is being kept. What you see there is what you will get.