As the world marks World NGO Day on 27th February, rebasing of the Nigerian economy to include NGOs is a progressive move.
For the first time, in 2025, the contribution of local NGOs to the Nigerian economy was captured in the Other Services Sector line of the 2024 rebased Nigerian economy. Upon completion of the rebasing exercise, the Other Services Sector line, which included Nigerian NGOs' contribution to GDP, increased by 6.2 per cent.
As the world marks World NGO Day on 27th February, rebasing of the Nigerian economy to include NGOs is a progressive move which aligns well with the recognition and value placed on non-profits by the UN.
In Nigeria, the 2026 World NGO Day is being marked at a time of USAID's unceremonious aid exit and the closure of the Mission's NGO localisation programme, which targeted and aimed to strengthen Nigerian NGOs in development and humanitarian spaces. The year 2026 is also one of significant reductions in funding from bilateral development partners as they repurpose resources for new national priorities. This has led to a weakening of the Nigerian NGO sector, with thousands of local groups unable to pay staff and volunteers and multiple programme and office closures.
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Since June 2025, the development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC), a local NGO, launched the NGO Support Initiative (NSI) to strengthen the weakened Nigerian NGO sector. The NSI mobilised and regranted sums of N5 million per NGO to registered groups, which were forced to close out USAID-funded projects as primes or subs.
With pilot funding from a Ford Foundation BUILD grant, 17 NGOs from 11 states were awarded N5 million each to implement education, health, GBV prevention and women's rights, humanitarian assistance, and livelihood projects. As part of the NSI, the participating NGOs also completed a 5-module training programme on NGO sustainability and resilience. The capacity-building component of the NSI was run by eight NGO Master
Trainers who graduated from the dRPC's Gates Foundation-funded PAS project.
The shortlist from which the 17 pilot NGOs were selected was rather long. The shortlist comprised 225 of the best-performing Nigerian NGOs, selected from among 660 groups that responded to the dRPC's public call for applications across multiple platforms. All 225 of these NGOs had great proposals and committed teams with a firm resolve to continue providing services at the grassroots level. For this, Nigerian NGOs must be commended.
When the Nigerian NGO sector weakens, the Other Services Sector of Nigeria's newly rebased economy is at risk of doing the same. While the Nigerian government must be commended for taking a futuristic step by quantifying the contribution of the country's non-profits to the economy, it must be nudged to continue supporting the local NGO sector.
For the Other Services Sector to grow, the government may well consider promoting an enabling environment for development partners, especially bilaterals, to follow the lead of Global Affairs, JICA, the Hungarian
Embassy and Irish Aid by awarding small grants to local NGOs. This can be done by fast-tracking the finalisation and launch of two critical draft policies, which have been languishing for years: the National Localisation Policy and the National ODA Policy.
The government should also be encouraged to proactively mobilise new forms of domestic resources for local groups within new community development programmes such as the Renewed Hope Ward Development
Programme (RHWDP). Finally, the government may wish to incentivise private sector philanthropists such as the Dangote Foundation to work through intermediary NGOs such as the dRPC to mitigate the high transactional cost of engaging local groups as they expand development assistance to local NGOs.
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Another action that the government can and must consider is to work with World Bank Nigeria programmes to convene procurement process orientation meetings targeted at NGOs for the inclusion of new partners. The
Bureau of Public Procurement is currently convening national-level consultations across the country to learn about, respond to and support NGO needs in the public procurement process. The Bureau of Public
Procurement is to be commended for this innovative programme and for its confidence in the Nigerian NGO sector.
NGOs are partners in development; they are not competitors. Through coordination and alignment with government policies and programmes, NGOs can and do contribute to socio-economic development. Happy World NGO Day.
Dr Judith-Ann Walker is the Executive Director, dRPC and can be reached at j.walker@drpcngr.org. For more about NSI, visit drpcngr.org
