Group One to create 1 000 new jobs

Malawi’s new security company, Group One Armed and Armoured Services, says it intends to create 1 000 new jobs between now and August as it diversifies its portfolio to corporate guarding.

Group One chairperson Konrad Buckle said this in an interview in Blantyre on Thursday.

The development is expected to ease pressure on the country’s growing unemployment figures, worsened by increased number of students finishing school and job cuts due to downsising as companies absorb the impact of the current financial squeeze.

Although official figures from the National Statistical Office peg unemployment at around two percent, analysts believe the country’s jobless should be somewhere above 20 percent.

Group One rolled out its services in the last quarter of 2011 to specialise in the provision of banking solutions to the country’s financial sector.

But speaking on Thursday, Buckle said the company has decided to diversify into corporate guarding due to overwhelming demand on the market.

He said corporate guarding will see the company providing guarding services to corporate clients.

“We are not into residential guarding. We will be strictly providing corporate guarding services. The corporate clients have invested a lot of money in their businesses, therefore, the need for quality security services,” said Buckle.

He said the company has so far invested over K100 million (about $600 000) in the corporate guarding division.

“So far, we have already employed 100 people in Blantyre. We intend to recruit 400 more in the Blantyre and another 500 in Lilongwe,” said Buckle.

He said Group One is impressed with the reception it has got from both financial institutions and other corporate clients since its inception.

“We would like to instil discipline in the security industry and provide a service that is worth the money the clients are paying. In this day and age, money is hard to find, therefore, the need to ensure that it is only released for quality services.

“We are very concerned with the trend in the local security industry where you find some security guards aiding in theft and armed robbery. That is pathetic and uncalled for. It dents the image of the whole industry. We want to change all this,” said Buckle.