The Federal Government has announced plans to roll out AI-Powered Policing and Fibre Networks for Police stations
This comes after the Federal Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy and the Nigerian Police Trust Fund in Abuja on Wednesday aimed at Deploying Artificial Intelligence and expanding fibre connectivity to police stations nationwide.
Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, said the initiative would focus on connecting police facilities to the national fibre backbone while introducing data-driven tools to improve policing outcomes.
Tijani said the project is to commence with the mapping of police stations across the country to determine their proximity to fibre infrastructure and identify connectivity gaps.
The Minister said “With this partnership, we will end up doing something that I really like, which is to map all the police stations in the country and be able to see how far they are from the point of presence of the fibre optic network,” Tijani said.
According to him, the exercise would allow the government to maximise existing investments in fibre infrastructure and prioritise police stations in future network expansion.
“Most of the time, these resources exist, but we don’t know that they exist. You may find a significant number of police stations are within reach of fibre-based connectivity,” he added.
The minister also noted that the Federal Government had already committed to laying about 90,000 kilometres of fibre optic cable nationwide, with points of presence expected in over 7,000 wards, adding that aligning the rollout with police infrastructure would strengthen security operations.
He also disclosed that the government, with support from the European Commission, was developing a national data exchange system to enable seamless information sharing across agencies, with the police identified as a priority use case.
“We’ve gotten the support of the European Commission to design and develop a data exchange system that will allow government agencies to seamlessly exchange data,” he said.
Tijani emphasised that artificial intelligence would be integrated into policing processes, particularly in areas such as incident reporting, analytics, and digital evidence management.
The bad people are using AI to do bad things. The good people are using this as well. I think our police should also be brought to a point where we can say they’re using it,” he said.
He explained that AI tools could help eliminate distortions in statements made at police stations by enabling real-time transcription and verification.
“With artificial intelligence, you go to a police station, you want to give your report, you just pick the machine that captures what you say… and it can then play it back to you so that you actually hear what you said before you then sign,” he added.
The minister stressed that a modern and well-resourced police system was critical to economic growth, investor confidence, and public trust.
“If we’re able to support enough and make sure that the police force is much more modern and well-resourced, it will help benefit from security… Businesses also trust more, and citizens also then have trust,” he said.
On his part, the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund, Mohammed Sheidu, noted that the initiative is designed to reposition the police for 21st-century operations.
Speaking at the event, the Executive Secretary, described the agreement as a long-awaited partnership aimed at building a digitally enabled police force.
“This is not just the signing of an MoU, but a long-awaited partnership… we are trying to modernise the Nigerian police force, and there’s no way possible for us to achieve this without your inputs,” he said.
Sheidu added that the collaboration would support the transition to “smart police stations” and improve operational efficiency across the country.
The project is expected to significantly enhance the operational capabilities of the Nigeria Police Force, promote data-driven policing and boost public confidence in the nation’s security architecture.
This comes as the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) faces a severe crisis characterized by extreme underfunding, low wages, dilapidated infrastructure, and inadequate equipment, leaving officers impoverished and overworked.
The NPF lacks sufficient policing equipment, including modern technology, to tackle banditry in the country. They often rely on old and outdated technology and equipment to fight modern-day insecurity. However, the Nigerian government has not demonstrated sufficient commitment in tackling this logistical challenge. Police stations across Nigeria mostly lack the modern gadgets required to track crime within the state. For example, even though bandits usually contact families of their kidnapped victims through registered mobile telephone lines, the police lacked the technology to track and arrest them. Most bandits operate social media accounts.
Although the Police have a budgetary provision for stationery, computer gadgets and internet provision, the funds are often insufficient and are not usually released to the police stations. Hence, most police stations nationwide lack essential office equipment such as computers and printers; they type and print official documents in commercial computer service centres. This results in the leakage of sensitive security information, which could affect the country’s fight against insecurity.
The initiative is anchored on the National Anchor Institutions Connectivity Programme and aligns with ongoing digital infrastructure efforts under Project BRIDGE, which seek to connect critical public institutions to Nigeria’s national fibre backbone.
Under the plan, the government will develop a national geospatial database of police stations, assess infrastructure gaps, and design last-mile connectivity solutions linking facilities to nearby fibre points of presence.
The programme will also explore the integration of police systems with the National Data Exchange Platform to enable secure data sharing, case management, and inter-agency collaboration.
Authorities are expected to roll out AI-enabled policing tools, establish a capacity-building framework for police personnel on digital skills, and implement a phased investment and governance structure to guide execution.
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