FG Moves to Operationalise 112 National Emergency Number

The Federal Government has directed relevant stakeholders and agencies to develop a comprehensive operational roadmap for the nationwide rollout of the 112 national emergency number.

The statement, signed by Stanley Nkwocha, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Communications in the Office of the Vice-President, was dated September 8, 2026.

The directive was issued by Vice-President Kashim Shettima on Tuesday in Abuja at the National Emergency Number 112 Project stakeholders meeting, where he tasked a committee comprising the Nigeria Police Force, Nigerian Communications Commission, National Emergency Management Agency, Federal Road Safety Corps and other relevant agencies with finalising the operational roadmap and standard operating procedures for formal endorsement by the National Economic Council (NEC).

The NEC had recently approved 112 as Nigeria’s single universal toll-free emergency number to replace fragmented and slow response lines, with the aim of eliminating bureaucratic red tape and giving citizens easier access to rapid assistance during fires, accidents, medical emergencies and security breaches.

Speaking at the meeting, Shettima urged the committee to base its decisions on global best practices and develop a clear roadmap for the implementation of the emergency number.

Charging the committee to finalise the roadmap and standard operating procedures for NEC endorsement, the Vice-President stressed the need for significant progress, assuring that resources would be made available to fund the process once the project becomes visible.

“Let’s make progress so that whatever time we have spent here is worth spending. And most importantly, the engine is finance. It is resources to drive the process. And I want to assure you that we will get the resources,” he stated.

The Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Rilwan Disu, said the Nigeria Police Force was fully in support of the adoption of 112 as the country’s unified national emergency number.

From an operational perspective, Disu described the initiative as “a significant step towards ensuring that citizens have a simple and reliable means of accessing emergency assistance.”

He explained that citizens facing armed attacks, accidents, fire outbreaks, medical emergencies, kidnapping or other life-threatening situations often face the initial challenge of determining which agency to contact, stressing that a single number should provide access to the appropriate response.

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Earlier in her presentation, the Personal Assistant to the President on e-Governance in the Office of the Vice-President, Mrs Lydia Aina, said emergency response in Nigeria currently involves multiple agencies, systems and jurisdictions, resulting in fragmentation in how emergencies are received, coordinated and addressed.

Aina said the goal was to move from fragmented state-level systems through coordinated response to a fully integrated national framework.

She said the meeting was focused on the system required to make the emergency number effective, including “the people, the agencies, the standards that make the number actually work when citizens dial it.”

“Our job now is to turn it into an actual working programme with milestones. So, we have identified six immediate priorities. First, governance. We need a clear structure of who’s responsible for what,” she explained.

Other stakeholders who pledged the full support of their agencies at the meeting included NEMA Director-General, Mrs Zubaida Umar; Corps Marshal of the FRSC, Shehu Mohammed; and Director-General of the National Orientation Agency, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, among others.

The meeting is part of efforts by the Federal Government to establish a coordinated national emergency response system that will allow citizens to access emergency services through a single toll-free number.