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$10 billion yearly donation can address Nigeria’s woes, say NSE chief, others

By Kingsley Jeremiah
25 July 2017   |   4:19 am
If Nigerians were committed to raising fund to support activities of non-for-profit social enterprises, increasing rate of poverty and other social challenges would see a drastic reduction, experts have said.

If Nigerians were committed to raising fund to support activities of non-for-profit social enterprises, increasing rate of poverty and other social challenges would see a drastic reduction, experts have said.

The experts, including the President of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, said that Nigeria and other African countries could become better by stimulating the ability to impact more on people’s lives by giving.

Using the US, where yearly donation to charity organisations represents 2.1 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), amounting to about $300 billion as an example, Aig-Imoukhuede, said Nigerians could give as much as $10 billion yearly to address societal challenges.

Speaking at the maiden editions of ACT Foundation breakfast dialogue, held in Lagos, the experts noted that lack of unity and integration were bane to the social sector.

Stakeholders, including Chief Executive Officer, ACT Foundation, Osayi Alile, Country Director, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Eme Essien; Regional Director, West Africa, Ford Foundation, Innocent Chukwuma; Country Director, ONE Campaign, Serah Makka-Ugbabe; Executive Director, The Initiative for Equal Rights, Olumide Makanjuola; as well as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Industry, Trade and Investment, Jumoke Oduwole, who were at the meeting to address “Connecting the Dots: Partnerships that work,” called for support that would enable the sector improve humanity.

Aig-Imoukhuede said: “In 2015, America donated 2.1 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is over $300 billion to charitable organisations because of the structure and leadership in the system. This is not because Americans are more charitable but because of the structure they have.”

“Leadership is required for an organization or society to develop and the social sector is not an exception. They must have a structure as well as strong governance for the sector to grow and attract funds.”

He insisted that the sector must focus on fiduciary responsibility of the third sector and become accountable to attarct capacity building and funding from the public and private sectors.

Also speaking at the event, Alile noted that the Foundation aims to provide services to enhance capacity of NGOs.

According to her, though the foundation had plans to do other developmental project it would focus on strategic ways to help the sector raise fund and bring solutions to key challenges.

“We are going to look internally what the issues are, and bring people in the sector to raise fund and bring solutions.”

We have converged here with solutions to different issues and how we can move forward. These are the reason for today’s meeting. We give grants. We are going to announce the grantees for the four sectors we are dealing with on Monday which are health, environment, entrepreneurship and leadership. But we are really concerned about the sustainability of this organisation. We are going to do a lot of work in that aspect.

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