PPP: A sure way out of NPTF funding challenges – Perm Sec

Omeiza Bilal

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Police Affairs (MPA), Mr. James Sule says private-public collaboration will help the Nigeria Police Trust Fund (NPTF) to address its funding challenges.

The Permanent Secretary, who stated this at the briefing of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund (NPTF) management led by its Executive Secretary, Mr. Muhammad Sheidu, at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.

According to a statement Deputy Director (Information and Public Relations Unit), Bolaji Oladimeji Kazeem, James said the ministry is aware that the agency is underfunded and the need to use the scarce resources at its disposal judiciously and urged NPTF management to look into the problems of the Police, especially training, equipment in order to motivate them to deliver world-class police to be proactive and responsive to the security challenges in the country.

He said, “We must be proud of ourselves in discharging our duties and doing the right things. Nobody will come from outside to turn the situation around. Everything starts and ends with leadership and in our corners, we are leaders. We must not work in silos but synergizes to ensure effective and efficient service delivery of the police ecosystem to the citizens”.

The Permanent Secretary added that if the enabling environment is good, the Nigeria Police will perform and urged the management to cooperate and support the new Executive Secretary to enable the marriage of the private and public sector experiences for the good of the system.

“We are aware that the perception of the police, civil servants including public servants is not encouraging. We have to search ourselves and encourage ourselves to change and imbibe attitudinal change and avoid poor response to citizens’ needs and engagement,” he added.

Earlier, the Executive Secretary, Nigeria Police Trust Fund (NPTF) Muhammed Sheidu, informed the Permanent Secretary that the Agency has fully implemented its Year 2020 and 2021 Capital Projects in line with the 2007 Procurement Act, while the police training programmes for 2022 and 2023 have been implemented.

He enumerated challenges facing the agency such as low budgetary provision since the inception of NPTF in 2019; and the untimely release of capital appropriation which affected the early implementation of the NPTF activities. Adding that the allocation of the 0.5% of the total revenue accruing to the Federation Account to NPTF is low and the release of levy (0.005%) of the net profit of companies operating businesses in Nigeria to the Trust Fund is irregular and very low.

“We are engaging with relevant Stakeholders to explore areas of collaboration and the Stakeholders’ engagement is a continuous exercise. It is expected that when MOUs are perfected with the respective organizations, additional funds will be attracted to finance the provision of Equipment, machinery, Construction of Police Stations, Living Facilities Training and Welfare of the Nigeria Police Force and its auxiliary staff,” he added.