Nigeria’s $470 million National Public Security Communication System (NPSCS), launched as a landmark policing reform, has largely collapsed after years of neglect. Conceived in 2008 and awarded to China’s ZTE Corporation in 2010, the project aimed to provide secure nationwide police communications, surveillance, emergency response and command centres across all states and the FCT, funded through a Nigeria–China loan arrangement.
Despite early promise, the system began failing before the end of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration. Preliminary tests were completed in 2012, with partial operations in 2013, but funding gaps, weak integration and fragile maintenance stalled progress. By early 2014, most of the network was shut down, leaving only isolated components running intermittently amid reports of vandalism and equipment failure.
After the 2015 transition, the decline deepened as maintenance contracts lapsed and operations funding dried up. Analysts and officials later cited poor oversight and neglect rather than a formal shutdown. Princess Adebajo-Fraser said, “There is no public record of any formal directive ordering the shutdown of a functioning NPSCS,” adding that prolonged neglect undermined the system’s viability.