On January 20, 2025, the United States government issued Executive Order 14169 (EO 14169), bringing to an end 65 years of USAID assistance to Nigeria. USAID’s engagement began in 1961 with grants to four major colleges of agriculture at Nigerian universities in Ibadan, Nsukka, Zaria and Ife, and later expanded across multiple development and humanitarian sectors.
A review of USAID’s official assistance between 2002 and 2024 reveals a steady rise in US development commitments to Nigeria. Funding increased from about US$90 million in 2002—the first fiscal year after Nigeria’s return to civilian rule and recertification—to a peak of nearly US$1 billion in the 2023 budget year. By 2024, obligated funds declined slightly to US$930.2 million.
For much of its engagement, USAID’s programming model in Nigeria favoured US-based implementing partners, with a significant share of funds going to foreign consultants, US prime grantees and technical assistance firms. Less widely known, however, is that by the time USAID was winding down its operations, it had become the only major development partner with a clearly defined localisation policy aligned with the Grand Bargain commitments. This policy set measurable targets to increase funding to Nigerian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and reduce reliance on US partners.
Over a 10-year period, USAID data accessed in 2024 showed that direct funding to Nigerian partners rose from 4.2 per cent of total obligations in 2002 to 10.2 per cent in 2022.
Under this localisation framework, Nigerian NGOs—particularly those working in HIV/AIDS programming—benefited from direct grants, capacity-strengthening support and sector-wide network development.
As USAID closed out its Nigeria programmes in 2025, several initiatives were discontinued.
One notable example was a formative study by the Fritz Institute (USA), titled “Humanitarian Supply Chain Management – Partnership for Localisation.”
Commissioned by USAID-Washington and supervised by the Federal Ministry of Economic Planning and Budgeting, the study sought to apply lessons from development-sector localisation to Nigeria’s humanitarian space.
The Development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC) supported the project by providing technical assistance to strengthen research tools.
With USAID’s withdrawal from both development and humanitarian programming, NGOs in the humanitarian sector lost the opportunity to benefit from the findings of this study.
In the development sector, several leading Nigerian NGOs that had received direct funding saw their grants end.
Thousands of smaller community-based NGOs working as sub-grantees under larger organisations were also affected.
Since April 2025, NGOs operating in areas such as youth entrepreneurship, climate justice, public health advocacy, school safety, zero-dose child awareness and human rights have been forced to close programmes, shut offices and lay off staff due to funding shortfalls.
For organisations that remain operational into 2026, this period has become one of enforced innovation—building new partnerships, seeking alternative funders and pursuing collective advocacy for sustainable financing of the NGO sector.
Against this backdrop, the Nigerian offices of the MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation and Luminate convened a high-level dialogue on October 24, 2025, to examine the future resilience of Nigerian NGOs without large-scale donor funding. Over five hours, NGOs, development partners, researchers and thought leaders engaged with a keynote presentation by The Nextier Group, ultimately producing strategic recommendations to strengthen sustainability and resilience.
While many of the recommendations placed responsibility on NGOs to rethink strategies, adopt smarter approaches and explore new business models, development partners were also urged to provide more innovative and strategic forms of support.
At the close of the dialogue, the Executive Director of the dRPC emphasised the need to situate NGO sustainability within a broader localisation agenda in development assistance. Although USAID has exited Nigeria, she argued that localisation—the agency’s flagship downward-accountability principle—should not disappear from Nigeria’s aid landscape.
She highlighted an opportunity to strengthen the NGO sector by embedding localisation principles into Nigeria’s National Official Development Assistance (ODA) policy, currently under review by the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning. This would involve introducing clear guidelines for funding and capacity-building support for Nigerian NGOs operating at national and sub-national levels across development and humanitarian value chains.
As Nigerian NGOs confront the challenges of 2026 amid shrinking grant opportunities, there is a growing need for flexible, fit-for-purpose funding. Examples include small-grant initiatives supported by the dRPC’s NGO Support Initiative (with Ford Foundation backing), ACT Trust Foundation, Global Affairs Canada, Irish Aid and the Hungarian Government’s Mission to Nigeria.
Equally significant is the emerging opportunity for government-backed funding to grassroots civil society organisations through initiatives such as the Renewed Hope Ward Development Programme (RHWD).
While the programme’s grant application process opened in 2026, it currently limits applications to individuals through ward coordinators.
With modest redesign, the initiative could be expanded to include the thousands of community-based and self-help groups working to support vulnerable Nigerians nationwide.
Judith-Ann Walker, a development expert with a PhD in International Development from the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), The Hague, is a member of Nigeria’s Presidential High-Level Council on Women and Girls (P-HiLAC) and Executive Director of the Development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC).