By Jennifer Tarapkwe
TUPSA Administration Manager
The Uganda Private Security Association is the umbrella body of over 250 Private Security companies registered in Uganda. The Association employs 40,000 to 60,000 personnel, the majority, private security personnel.
The other categories are Human Resource Managers, Accountants, secretaries, technicians, and other experts. This vibrant industry has attracted local and foreign investors and it could soon be one of the largest tax-paying sectors.
It is supervised by the Uganda Police Force which plays a complementary role in protecting the life and property of Ugandans. The Sector employs age groups 18-45 with exception of senior managers who are above 50 years.
Officially, the level of education ranges from senior four to the diploma/university graduates, the bulk of personnel are ordinary Ugandans who fall under informal job market; the jobless or those engaged in informal jua kali jobs earning between Ug shs30,000- shs100,000. When trained as private security guards, they are paid shs100,000 to upwards of shs700,000.
In this respect, the sector creates jobs and sucks from circulation, a group of individuals who would have found a way into the criminal world or added to the unemployment statistics.
The sector has laid down strategies to enhance the role of psos in crime management, starting with ourselves as the core of the sector as we put our house in order. We are fast-tracking the deployment of a database so that criminal networks don’t get into our system. We are studying a proposal to introduce a service card book with bio-data, service records for each individual guard.
Apart from the basic training of guards, we are keen to introduce our personnel in detection of crime and criminal networks, anti-terror techniques as well as Specialized training for guards deployed for instance at banks, hospitals, hotels, factories, mines, as each have got unique criminal networks operating around them and crimes that can be handled effectively by some well-trained personnel.
TUPSA has actively engaged various stakeholders in a bid to streamline the operations of PSOs while taking into account the expectations of the public.