MARCEL MBAMALU and Victor Ezeja
FORD Foundation says it has invested about $28 million on social impact projects in Nigeria in 2021 alone.
Its Regional Director for West Africa, Catherine Chinedum Aniagolu-Okoye disclosed this in an exclusive interview with Prime Business Africa on Wednesday.
Aniagolu-Okoye was recently appointed to oversee the activities of the Foundation in West Africa, following the end of tenure of her predecessor Mr. Innocent Chukwuma.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelAccording to the new director, Ford Foundation’s average spend in West Africa varies from year to year, but hovers around $12 million, 70 per cent of which is devoted to Nigeria.
Asked why the figure more than doubled in 2021, Aniagolu-Okoye explained that it was due to new innovative funding approaches such as the Building Institutions and Networks (BUILD) grant and social bond investment – the BUILD grant was launched to strengthen the resilience of promising social justice organizations, while the Social Bond was developed in response to COVID-19 pandemic to address socio-economic challenges faced by people in West Africa region and beyond.
“We have invested about $28 million in Nigeria alone due to our flexible and innovative grantmaking like BUILD and our special investments.
The Build Grant in particular is instituted to strengthen the capacity of local NGOs by giving them flexible funding to improve their operational and general structure. We have been identifying organizations we can support over the next five years that have the potential but need the money to be able to grow and stand. Along with our special investments, our investment in Nigeria grew to about $28 million in 2021,” the Ford Regional Director said.
Ford Foundation works in partnership with local NGOs and civil society groups who have similar goals and aspirations with it, to implement programmes in their key focus areas of social justice and gender relations.
Through principles of social justice, it addresses the key drivers of inequality by supporting vulnerable groups like women, youth, and people with disabilities to get their needs met.
On gender relations, Aniagolu-Okoye said the Foundation focuses on tackling issues of gender-based violence, particularly against women in communities, especially rural areas in Africa.
“One of our core areas of focus is gender, racial and ethnic justice (GREJ).
In West Africa, we are focusing squarely on gender-based violence. It really has a negative impact on women’s ability to live resourceful lives. And the incidents have been increasing, as statistics and research in recent years have indicated.
“Our strategy is going to focus more on prevention, particularly at the grassroots level, by supporting rural women in rural communities to address the challenges of gender-based violence and to put in place, structures to minimize and hopefully eliminate it altogether.
We’ll also be exploring ways to strengthen women’s rights organizations to boost their feminist action and advocacy against sexual violence in West Africa.
“We recognize women organizations and the support that they require to address the issues that affect their lives, especially relating to gender-based violence.
“One of our critical pathways will be strengthening women’s rights organizations so that they are in an advantageous position to address issues of sexual violence in West Africa and also to advocate against it,” Aniagolu explained.
On implementation of its projects, the Regional Director said that Ford Foundation monitors the projects through independent consultants and its knowledgeable program officers to ensure effective implementation of programmes.
Recently, Ford and McArthur Foundation announced a launch of the $5 million Nigeria Youth Future’s Fund (NYFF), a five-year collaborative fund to support the youth leadership ecosystem in Nigeria. While Ford contributed $3 million, McArthur Foundation seeded $2 million.
Dr. Marcel Mbamalu is a distinguished communication scholar, journalist, and entrepreneur with three decades of experience in the media industry. He holds a Ph.D. in Mass Communication from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and serves as the publisher of Prime Business Africa, a renowned multimedia news platform catering to Nigeria and Africa's socio-economic needs.
Dr. Mbamalu's journalism career spans over two decades, during which he honed his skills at The Guardian Newspaper, rising to the position of senior editor. Notably, between 2018 and 2023, he collaborated with the World Health Organization (WHO) in Northeast Nigeria, training senior journalists on conflict reporting and health journalism.
Dr. Mbamalu's expertise has earned him international recognition. He was the sole African representative at the 2023 Jefferson Fellowship program, participating in a study tour of the United States and Asia (Japan and Hong Kong) on inclusion, income gaps, and migration issues.
In 2020, he was part of a global media team that covered the United States presidential election.
Dr. Mbamalu has attended prestigious media trainings, including the Bloomberg Financial Journalism Training and the Reuters/AfDB Training on "Effective Coverage of Infrastructural Development in Africa."
As a columnist for The Punch Newspaper, with insightful articles published in other prominent Nigerian dailies, including ThisDay, Leadership, The Sun, and The Guardian, Dr. Mbamalu regularly provides in-depth analysis on socio-political and economic issues.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with seven years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Master's degree in Mass Communication.
