Rights group gives N80m grants to eight youth organisations

A girl rights advocacy organisation, Plan International Nigeria, has provided a grant of N80 million to eight youth-led organisations across the six geopolitical zones to enhance youth empowerment.

Country Director of Plan International, Charles Usie, announced the donation yesterday in Abuja during the public presentation of a new country strategy (2024 to 2028), marking its 10th anniversary in Nigeria.

He said the grantees were selected after a competitive process from the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria, while Plan International Nigeria’s Girls Get Equal campaigners and an organisation focused on people with disabilities made the list to a total of eight.

While presenting a cheque of N10 million to each organisation, Usie stated that the aim of the grant was to enable them to carry out different projects that impact the lives of children in their respective locations.

“We are matching our strategy with actions, and today we are going to support several youth organisations with 10 million each to go forth and make change for Nigerians, especially girls,” Usie said.

The list of grantees includes Girls Get Equal Nigeria, the Special Physically Challenged Care Foundation, Tomorrow is a Girl Initiative, and Halima Isah Usman Charity Foundation. Others are the Open Knowledge Development Initiative and Spring of Hope for Girl Child Development, as well as Access to Learning and School (Atlas) Initiative, and Street Mentors Network.

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Plan International has been in Nigeria for the past 10 years, impacting the lives of children, girls, women, and boys across the country. “We have so far served 36.9 million people in Nigeria, both directly and indirectly,” Usie said. “It is a significant milestone for us, and we are proud of these achievements.”

Highlighting some of their achievements over the last 10 years, Usie said they have built about 570 schools across the country; however, due to the insecurity situation, they had to rebuild 50 of them.

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He said that they mobilised about N150 billion over the last 10 years from international donors, which has been put to good use to improve the livelihoods of Nigerian citizens.

Usie emphasized the need to create an enabling environment for the international community to work, saying, “We need an enabling environment that is safe, conducive, and accommodating for international partners like us. If we can achieve greater security, we will have more support and access to some communities we have been unable to reach.”

He also noted that they will need an investment of about 130 million Euros to achieve their aim of supporting 20 million girls over the next five years.