WHO WE ARE
Montgomery Security Depository is the first offsite private depository in black AFRICA, south of the Sahara.

Montgomery depository was built by a French company, Messers. Bouygues Nigeria Limited, a Subsidiary of Bouygues of Paris, who is a world leader in building and civil engineering, specialized in pre-stresse concretes in the world. And the vaults doors, air-guards, bullet-resistive equipment, alarm systems were supplied by Mosler Inc., Ohio, United States of America, also a world leader since 1889 in the manufacturing, installation and servicing of large security systems both physical and electronic. Mosler has now been taken over by DIEBOLD.

The Depository is a monolithic building of heavily reinforced concrete which is watertight and fire resistant. Entry into and movement within the vault complex is controlled. The vaults have an in-built temperature, humidity recorders and smoke detectors. The entire building is monitored by a closed circuit television system from the central control station and we also maintain round the clock guards, 24 hours a day. This building is almost unassailable and impregnable. The Depository has a drive-in-drive-out facility, in order words customers could drive into and inside the building for maximum protection and security. The building has a standby 250KVA generator for emergency use when there is a loss of national power.

Customers are admitted into the vault through a computerized PIN or coding system.

CONCEPTUAL REASON FOR IT'S ESTABLISHMENT IN NIGERIA
During the period 1980 to 1990, there were frequent and rampant deliberate commissions of arson. A lot of public buildings were deliberately set on fire, which usually emanated from the accounts Department, for example:

• The Federal Ministry of External Affairs on the Marina in Lagos went up in flames and destroyed the entire accounts records of that Ministry and for months salaries of the staff could not be especially those of the Ambassadors outside the country who were being paid locally in Lagos.
• We also recall the great inferno at the Nigerian Telecommunications building and by strange coincidence, the fire started from the room where the accounts records are kept and for months thereafter telephone subscribers had difficulty of reconciliation of their charges payable.

However, a particular victim escaped the operational paralysis, which was imposed, on the above two examples. That was the fire at the old National Cash Registrar's office on Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos. After the fire incident, the company promptly dispatched as senior officer to their security vaults outside Nigeria to retrieve the back-ups of their operational data with the result that within a couple of weeks thereafter they were back in business. It therefore appears that public arsonist and fraudsters often seem to be motivated by a literally burning desire to destroy important documents and tapes especially in the Accounts Department. The idea behind the establishment of Montgomery Depository became conclusive and Montgomery Security Vaults (Nigeria) Limited was established in 1982.

However, it was not until 1987 that the foundation laying ceremony of the Depository was performed by the then Federal Minister of Internal Affairs, Col. John Shagaya pss, fss. The Depository started operations in July 1991, when it was officially opened by the then President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida pss, fss, mni. and in the presence of the then Governor of Lagos State Col. Raji Rasaki pss, fss, the Inspector General of Police, the Royal Fathers which included the Oni of Ife, the Obi of Onitsha. Also present were eminent personalities, representatives of the Diplomatic Corp and business moguls including Chief (Mrs.) H. I. D. Awolowo etc. etc.

OWNERSHIP/INVESTORS
It was natural for leading Insurance companies to participate in the equity holding of the Depository because of the loss ratio statistics of the Nigerian Insurance Industry, which shows that valuables worth more than N1 billion are consumed by fire annually. Hence 55% of the paid-up capital of Montgomery was subscribed by the blue chips Insurance companies of Nigeria some of them partly or wholly owned by the Federal Government of Nigeria. The Insurance companies who are shareholders of Montgomery are:-

• Nigerian Re-Insurance Corporation Plc
• NICON - National Insurance Corporation of Nigeria
• Niger Insurance Plc
• . Great Nigeria Insurance Company Plc
• . British-American Insurance Co. Plc
• Crusader Insurance Company Plc