Driving Sustainable Development in Nigeria Through Diaspora Philanthropy
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Development Through Nigerian Diaspora Philanthropy

Driving Sustainable Development in Nigeria Through Diaspora Philanthropy

Nigerians abroad hold the key to significant health, economic, and social development at home

APRIL 2026

The government of Nigeria has articulated an ambitious development agenda, with aims to become a trillion-dollar economy, expand and upgrade its infrastructure, and make Nigerians healthier, more educated, and more prosperous. However, as Nigeria faces the impending 2030 deadline for completion of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the country finds itself at a critical juncture. Despite progress within certain subnational states, rising inflation, worsening inequality, and growing development needs are besetting the largest population in Africa and sixth-largest in the world amid a historic retrenchment in global development aid. Not only has Nigeria’s progress toward the SDGs stalled—with the country experiencing a USD 347 billion SDG financing gap—but burgeoning climate risks and subnational conflicts are making an already tenuous situation worse.

Closing the gap in development financing requires a cross-sectoral strategy that mobilizes domestic resources, engages the Nigerian private and philanthropic sectors, and harnesses the enormous potential of the diaspora population. The Nigerian diaspora—those who have emigrated from their ancestral homeland but remain closely connected to it from afar—represents a promising resource with the potential to help fill critical financing gaps. With a diaspora population of approximately 17 million people, Nigeria was the world’s ninth-largest remittance recipient in 2022, and remittances now significantly exceed official development assistance (ODA) levels. Strategic engagement with high-earning members of the Nigerian diaspora could enable the government, private, and nonprofit sectors to leverage external philanthropy and investment to supplement existing financing and meet specific development goals.

FIGURE 1

Nigeria needs to mobilize funding and investments from multiple sources to close its SDG financing gap

Diaspora philanthropy represents one important piece of a broader resource mobilization strategy.

$31,500,000,000

Nigeria needs USD 31.5 billion annually to finance infrastructure, social services, and the broader SDG goals.

Data sources: African Development Bank Group, Central Bank of Nigeria, OECD (2025), World Bank, and UN Nigeria.

This special report by FP Analytics, supported by the Ford Foundation, explores how high-earning members of the Nigerian diaspora are engaged in philanthropy, investment, and other forms of giving to their country of origin and how that giving has the potential to make an even greater impact. The report identifies possible pathways for the growth of this sector and examines how the Nigerian government and other relevant actors can harness this growth to achieve development goals. The analysis seeks to enable greater alignment and coordination among key stakeholders in order to scale impact.  

This research draws on a literature review, publicly available quantitative datasets, a closed-door roundtable discussion held alongside UNGA80—which brought together high-earning and high-net-worth individuals in the Nigerian diaspora—and semi-structured interviews with subject-matter experts and individuals engaged in philanthropy and impact investment. (See the methodological appendix for more information.) Three complementary case studies that explore diaspora philanthropy in India, the Philippines, and Mexico offer lessons learned for Nigeria and other countries with growing diaspora populations, while three Nigeria-focused case studies on diaspora philanthropic initiatives highlight the impactful work already underway by diasporans and their domestic partners.

Key Takeaways

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Key findings and recommendations from this report include:

  • Despite decades of public investment and foreign aid, Nigeria is projected to achieve only two SDGs before the 2030 deadline, and more than half of its population lives in poverty.
  • As traditional sources of development assistance pull back, the Nigerian diaspora can play a significant role in shaping development and economic empowerment in their home country. Current diaspora giving tends to be fragmented and ad hoc—channeling diaspora philanthropy strategically to address Nigeria’s development needs, and harnessing diaspora’s varied motivations for giving, will be key to increasing its impact.
  • Long-term philanthropy can be most impactful when strategically aligned with the SDGs and other Nigerian development priorities and guided by high-quality and consistent impact monitoring and evaluation.
  • Stakeholders in Nigeria’s development—including the government, domestic and diaspora NGOs and philanthropists, the private sector, and multilateral institutions—must overcome challenges to facilitate trust, transparency, and collaboration. These challenges include significant sub-national variation in resources and intervention, a lack of reliable data, inadequate regulatory environments, and persistent perceptions of corruption and untrustworthiness in Nigeria that undermine good-faith engagement in philanthropic activities.
  • Middle-income countries with significant diaspora populations, including Mexico, India, and the Philippines, and regional neighbors such as Ghana, Senegal, and Ethiopia, can offer lessons and models for the Nigeria government’s diaspora philanthropy engagement strategy. For philanthropists, peer-to-peer consultation and learning, including through online and in-person events, can help create high-quality, formalized philanthropic processes that have proved successful, and inspire others to act.
  • In addition to traditional forms of philanthropy, innovative financial mechanisms such as diaspora bonds, donor-advised funds, and match-funding campaigns can help inspire new investors and philanthropists and catalyze funding from other sources to create a diverse, sustainable development financing environment.

For a full list of recommendations, jump to Looking Ahead

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