Look inwards for funding, Osinabajo tells NIPSS

Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), has challenged the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, as a major national policy think tank, to look inwards and evolve creative strategies for raising resources to meet its funding needs. He made the observation on Wednesday when he received in his office a delegation from NIPSS, Kuru, Abuja, which paid him a courtesy visit, according to a statement by his Special Senior Assistant on Media & Publicity to the Vice President, Laolu Akande. Osinbajo averred that given the mandate of the Institute as a think tank for the nation, it should be able to explore opportunities to collaborate with the private sector towards generating the resources needed to sustain it. He cited leading academic institutions around the world that raised funds and support from their societies through development offices. The Vice President promised to work with the institute to achieve its funding goals including the establishment of a development unit. “I do not believe funding should be a major challenge to the Institute,” he told the NIPSS delegation. Osinbajo, however, said the Federal Government would see what could be done to address some of the challenges confronting the Institute. He also assured the delegation that their concern over the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System would be resolved with the Accountant-General of the Federation, promising he would work together with the Director-General of the Institute to proffer a solution to the problem of funding. While lauding the founding vision of the institute as a national resource centre, the Vice President commended the institute and personally confirmed the quality of its policy papers on national issues, particularly the report on the Boko Haram insurgency. Earlier, the NIPSS Director-General, Prof. Tijani Bande, stated that the Institute had produced over 1,700 important functionaries for Local, State and Federal Governments, which, he said, had added value to solving the nation’s problems. Bande informed the Osinbajo that the institute had been working with the Department for International Development and had produced a report on how to combat the Boko Haram insurgency on both mid and long term basis. He stated that the institute was having problems with IPPIS, but emphasised on the problem of funding as the major challenge.