FG moves to curb capital flight, upscale national fire academy

THE Federal Government, has announced plans to upscale the National Fire Academy located in Sheda, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), into a word class capacity and training institute to tackle high costs associated with personnel going abroad for capacity trainings.

Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, stated this during an inspection visit of ongoing building of the institute yesterday in Abuja.

He noted that the academy when completed, will be open to training fire officers from other countries and paramilitary personnel because government is looking inwards toward generating more income and cutting down spending.

The minister explained that “What we are trying to do is novel, we are trying to create a world class fire academy that is able to trainings on professionalism.

“What we have here is 10 hectares and we are making arrangements with the area council and the traditional institutions to get additional 13 hectares to make it 23 hectares so that we can really make the academy a hub for capacity building”.

He adds that academy is about 60 to 65 per cent completed and that by the next three months, in May 2026 precisely, it would be fully ready.

“I want to say very clearly that this is a huge one for Mr. President and for this administration because we understand that capacity training is key and we understand that in this era, fire service is not just about putting out fire but also about emergency response and management and rescue services,” he said.

“This academy provides facilities not just for the training of officers of the Federal Fire Service (FFS),but to also train private sector people and to reduce the capital flight that we’ve been experiencing when people travel abroad to train themselves on rescue management and rescue services.

Tunji-Ojo believes that Nigeria will be able to provide these facilities through the fire academy.

On his part, Controller General of the FFS Olumode Adeyemi, said that with about 11,000 staff strength nationwide, the agency has the human capacity needed to drive reforms that would be ushered in when the academy becomes fully operational following the upgrade.

According to him the academy is equipped with the first of its kind fire house in Africa and that is a huge feat .

“Our firehouse is the first of its kind in Africa where officers can carry out search and rescue drills. Here also, we gave accommodation that can take up to 3,000 participants at a go. This is a laudable project for Mr. President with all these in place,” Adeyemi said.

Speaking on the important collaboration to the success of the project, Chairman of Kwali Area Council, Danladi Chiya, said that his council has since resolve to support current reforms of the federal government as this will bring the dividends of good governance to the grassroots dwellers.

Chiya observed that arrangements on the additional 13 hectares would soon be done with.

“We have come to an agreement to work together. The survey work will soon be concluded and compensations will be settled,” he adds