Wells Fargo: An Overview of the Security Sector and Supply Chain Industry in Kenya and East Africa

Gray Cullen, Executive Director at Wells Fargo and Operations Director at Fargo Courier, gives an overview of the security sector and the supply chain industry in Kenya and East Africa.

“The security sector is seeing a shift within East Africa, moving like the rest of the world towards technology, rather than manual security. Vehicles now have tracking systems, and you can implement things remotely, with automated signals coming through to control rooms. We see significantly more remote monitoring these days than we did in the past. In Kenya, the guarding sector is made of about 700,000 guards and we are seeing those numbers reducing quite significantly over time. The growing sector has to do with the technology that is coming in from your CCTV and access controls to your alarm systems with emergency response teams. If there was an opportunity within the security sector, it would be technology-based. On the cash-in-transit side, due to COVID we saw a 35% reduction in cash movement, and whilst it has recovered, it is nowhere near the pre-pandemic level. Many companies are focused internally, including the banking sector in Kenya, and there is a lot of interest towards cash management being outsourced to security companies such as ourselves. We have five cash management centers around the country, and we outsource those services to a number of banks and large retail entities. That is one area of cash-in-transit which has grown along with the advent of cash deposit machines. Much of the focus in Kenya has moved away from using manual tellers, and the advent of cash deposit machines has really taken grip, moving away from the security arm to the supply chain. The supply chain is one of those wonderful industries that are not influenced by what is happening, whether it is COVID or elections next year. In 2020, during COVID, we had one of our busiest years, which was unexpected, but we have been very fortunate to be on the back end of a very large expansion since 2010 in Kenya. Our company has significantly grown, and we have been able to expand to 114 branches. We were a quarter of that five or six years ago, and that has enabled us to now move into other countries, such as Uganda, where there is a huge opportunity with the new pipelines, oil exploration, and the logistics that run alongside that. We are looking at other East African countries as well. What you find in the supply chain market is that the majority of large corporates and large clients tend to base themselves in Kenya and use it as a hub. Then they want the same services replicated across East Africa and that is where Fargo comes in. We have seen a huge drop off in the manufacturing and retail sectors last year, but they have recovered somewhat. Tourism was also very affected. We saw a massive uptake in the pharmaceutical and relief sectors, which Fargo was very fortunate to take advantage of. That gives a general landscape of the supply chain and the security industry”, says Gray Cullen.

ABOUT WELLS FARGO AND FARGO COURIER: Wells Fargo Limited was incorporated in 1977, initially providing dedicated, specialist professional security services to the banking sector and other financial institutions in Nairobi city and environs. Wells Fargo has since grown to become a leading corporate security and protection solutions provider, offering premium services to major private and public organizations countrywide. Wells Fargo and its sister company, Fargo Courier, are proud of being active members of the Kenya Security Industry Association (K.S.I.A) and Courier Industry Association of Kenya (C.I.A.K) respectively.

For more information, please visit: www.fargo.co.ke.

FAIR USE POLICY
This material (including media content) may not be published, broadcasted, rewritten, or redistributed. However, linking directly to the page (including the source, i.e. Marcopolis.net) is permitted and encouraged.