Nabila Aguele is the Chief Executive, Nigeria, at the Malala Fund and a member of its global Executive Leadership Team. She is a lawyer, public policy expert, and gender equality advocate driving sustainable development through data and storytelling with over 20 years of experience. She previously advised Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Budget, advancing gender-responsive fiscal policies and national financing frameworks. Nabila serves on the boards of Women for Women International, INSEAD, and Girl Rising, where she is Vice-Chair. A former law faculty member at American University, she has also worked with leading U.S. firms and global development institutions. In this interview, she speaks on her passion for advancing the rights of girls through especially in Nigeria’s Northern region. Excepts.
Tell us about yourself, your journey, and what really prepared you for this role.
I’m Nigerian, though mixed, my father is Edo but I grew up in Katsina and Zaria, while my mother is from Kano. I was raised mostly in the North, but I’ve lived across five countries -Nigeria, the United Kingdom, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and later Canada, where my family settled in the mid-90s. I hold a first degree in Human Biology, then earned a Doctorate in Law in the U.S. I practiced law for about nine years working in litigation and intellectual property, including clerking for a judge and working with big tech clients like Apple and Toshiba. I later transitioned briefly into academia. But at some point, I started craving impact.
My work in law was rewarding but disconnected from the people and places that shaped me. I wanted to contribute to development and human rights work that centered on African lives. So, I pivoted. I earned an MBA at INSEAD in 2013 and used it as a springboard to return home. By 2015, I was back in West Africa doing consulting work in Accra and Lagos, which eventually led to an opportunity with then Minister of State for Budget and Planning, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed. She officially brought me back to Nigeria, where I spent seven years working with her across multiple portfolios – from Monitoring and Evaluation to Humanitarian Affairs and Finance. That period gave me a 360-degree understanding of governance, engaging with civil servants, international partners, and private sector leaders. I also built a reputation as “Special Assistant Gender” because I was intentional about embedding gender and equity in fiscal planning. One of the achievements I’m proud of is helping develop Nigeria’s first gender-responsive budget call circular with the Budget Office, a framework that’s now shaping conversations around gender budgeting. I also led work on the Integrated National Financing Framework, launched by former President Buhari. All of this shaped who I am today as someone who thrives at the intersection of disciplines: science, law, business, and development. Now, at Malala Fund, I lead a team funding local actors who champion girls’ education and gender equity. These are not just activists; they are technocrats and experts driving systems-level change.
Malala Fund has been in Nigeria for a while now. How would you assess its impact so far?
We’re not in the business of one-off interventions; our focus is on sustainable systems change. Our impact lies in the ecosystem we’ve built, an incredible network of about 30 organisations nationwide known as our Education Champions Network. These include connected advocates like Hamzat Lawal of Connected Development (CODE) and Hajiya Habiba Ahmed of the Centre for Girls’ Education (CGE) in Kaduna, which runs safe spaces that help reintegrate girls into school and shift harmful social norms. We’ve seen major policy influence for instance, our partners in Adamawa worked with the state government to develop its first-ever Education Policy, ensuring it’s gender-responsive. The policy is now government-owned and being implemented sustainably. In Kaduna and Oyo, partners have led advocacy against hidden fees in supposedly “free” education systems, which often keep girls out of school. So, our impact isn’t about counting how many girls got school supplies, it’s about transforming the systems that decide whether girls can learn and thrive.
Some people wonder why Malala Fund focuses heavily on Northern Nigeria. Why is that?
That’s a fair question, and one we get often. The short answer is that’s where the crisis is most severe. Forty-eight percent of Nigeria’s out-of-school girls are in the Northeast and Northwest. Those same regions top poverty indices and early marriage rates, over 50 percent of girls in some states marry before 18, and one in three has a child before adulthood. So, when we talk about girls’ education, we’re also addressing poverty, child marriage, and climate vulnerability, issues that hit hardest in those regions. Our six focus states – Borno, Adamawa, Bauchi, Kano, Kaduna, and Oyo – were selected deliberately. Kano, for instance, is an economic and cultural hub where reform can influence the broader North. Oyo represents the South, showing that while the crisis is worse up North, challenges exist nationwide. And so, we engage with the Governor’s Forum, Governor’s Spouses Forum. We recently, as part of our board visit, co-convened alongside the World Bank, a sector partners convening. And so, we believe in the power of the multiplier, catalytic advocacy. So, in as much as our grant making is focused on specific states, our advocacy in terms of reach and in terms of messaging is national because of the stakeholders that we’re engaging with and the potential for other states to adopt and scale some of the interventions that our partners are driving.
At the recent board dinner, there was talk about policy direction. What can we expect from Malala Fund’s next phase?
So, we are just in the beginning of implementing a new strategy, our strategy for 2025 to 2030. It’s part of a global strategy for Malala Fund. As you know, our focus is on secondary school education, access and completion for girls. We want girls to be able to complete 12 years of schooling. And we focus on adolescent girls in secondary school because these girls are incredibly vulnerable in terms of dropping out and not being able to complete school. There are significant gains from educating these girls as we believe this is one of the most effective ways that government, both at federal and at state, can drive economic and inclusive development in Nigeria. There is a figure that says that if we had, for example, parity in terms of employment between men and women, we could add up to 229 billion US dollars to the Nigerian economy. Another figure I’d love to share is that for every additional year of secondary school that a girl undertakes, whether it’s in Nigeria or elsewhere, her earning potential increases by 25 percent. These set of girls, if they finish school, their children are likely to go to school, they make better choices from a health perspective, they’re more likely to be financially empowered. Hence, we are focusing on two core areas: rights and resourcing. On the rights side, we’re championing education as a tool to end child marriage and early pregnancy. On the resourcing side, we’re deepening work around gender-responsive budgeting ensuring that education budgets at state and federal levels reflect the realities of girls’ lives. Partners like Bridge Connect Africa in Kano and Invictus Africa in Oyo are driving that with full government collaboration. For us, it’s not about parachuting into states to run side projects. It’s about institutional reform embedding accountability and gender equity into systems that will outlive us.
How does Malala Fund connect education to issues like Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights?
Education and SRHR are intertwined. When you advocate for girls to stay in school, you’re also advocating for safe spaces, for comprehensive sexuality education, for schools that consider the needs of adolescent mothers. Our partners work on everything from SRHR awareness to engaging men, boys, and traditional leaders, people whose influence and determines what happens to girls. Leaders like the Emir of Zazzau and the Sultan of Sokoto have been critical allies. So, education advocacy isn’t just about classrooms. It’s about creating environments where girls can learn safely with dignity and have control over their own lives.
As a mother and leader, how do you balance parenting, marriage, and this demanding advocacy work?
Let me be honest, balance is a myth. What I have is integration. Family remains at the center of everything, even when I’m away. I have a strong support system my husband, family, and community and we manage as a team. I’ve also unlearned guilt. I used to apologise for traveling or working long hours, but I realised that my children seeing me live my purpose is powerful. I now tell them, “This is part of who I am, and I hope you find your own passion too.” Research shows that children thrive not because you’re physically present all the time, but because you’re present when you’re with them. So, when I’m home, I’m intentional with school runs, homework, family time. Motherhood has also taught me the strength of community – women supporting women. I lean on friends, mentors, my mother, and I’ve learned to ask for help when I need it. Above all, I strive for alignment between passion and purpose. When your work reflects your purpose, the pressure feels lighter even when you’re exhausted, it’s fulfilling. Nobody has figured it all out. Everybody is struggling with something or the other. And so, you need to fortify yourself, first of all, with the knowledge that you are not alone, and you’re not unusual, and fortify yourself with the community that you keep around you, both at work and at home.
