Abuja: The Malala Fund has announced a significant investment of $1.7 million to support nine Nigerian organizations focused on increasing educational opportunities for girls. This funding is part of a larger $4.8 million initiative aimed at supporting 21 new cohorts of predominantly young women-led organizations across five countries, including Brazil, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Tanzania, as detailed on the fund’s website.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, the Communications Manager for the Malala Fund in Nigeria, Nankwat Mbi, shared a statement on Wednesday in Abuja revealing the allocation for Nigeria. The initiative aligns with the organization’s strategic plan for 2025 to 2030, directing resources to countries with the most significant educational needs.
The nine Nigerian beneficiaries of the fund include the Aid for Rural Education Access Initiative, Anti-Sexual Violence Lead Support Initiative, Black Girls’ Dream Initiative, BudgiT Foundation for the Promotion of Information in Nigeria, and Centre for Advocacy, Transparency, and Accountability Initiative. Additional beneficiaries are Isa Wali Empowerment Initiative, Participatory Communication for Gender Development Initiative, Teenage Education and Empowerment Network, and Women, Children, Youth Health and Education Initiative.
The fund emphasizes that 66 percent of the grant will support young women-led organizations in the selected countries, exceeding Malala Fund’s original target by more than triple. The focus is particularly on countries like Nigeria and Pakistan, which account for 15 percent of all out-of-school girls globally. The organization invests in local civil society organizations, building upon years of partnership and impact on the ground.
Malala Yousafzai, Co-founder of the fund, highlighted the importance of the new grant in assisting married girls and young mothers in Nigeria to complete secondary education. She expressed pride in the fact that most of the funding under the new strategy is directed towards organizations led by young women, who are at the forefront of the fight for girls’ education under challenging circumstances.
Yousafzai also mentioned that the Malala Fund’s Education Champion Network (ECN) supports civil society organizations to advance girls’ education and influence policy changes in their countries. The new cohort of ECN grantee partners will tackle urgent threats, ranging from child marriage and conflict to systemic gender and racial discrimination and shrinking education budgets across five countries.
Lena Alfi, Chief Executive Officer of the fund, stated that their partners are closest to the challenges hindering girls’ education and are delivering bold, practical solutions to enable girls to receive the education they deserve. Alfi emphasized the importance of investing in young women and seasoned activists who are well-equipped to defend girls’ rights.
The Malala Fund prioritizes flexible, multi-year grants to allow partners to allocate resources effectively, focusing on policy advocacy, budget transparency, safe-school initiatives, re-entry programs for young mothers, and eliminating hidden school costs. The new cohort of grantees in Nigeria will work on gender-responsive budgeting, transparency, and citizen oversight, supporting school re-entry for married and pregnant girls, and deploying digital tools to track education spending and infrastructure gaps.