Nigerians abroad are typically highly engaged with their country of heritage: In 2023, the Nigerian diaspora sent USD 23 billion in remittances, nearly the amount of the combined GDPs of Africa’s ten least-developed economies, and likely an under-estimate, due to inconsistent reporting and difficulty in tracking informal money transfers. That same year, remittances were the second-largest source of foreign currency in Nigeria after crude oil revenues, with the diaspora in the United States and United Kingdom accounting for about half of that money. In fact, Nigeria’s diaspora remittances regularly surpass net inflows from ODA, foreign direct investment, and foreign portfolio investment combined, highlighting the diaspora’s consequential economic role as the government seeks to close SDG gaps in the run-up to the 2030 deadline.  

But while private transfers from those in the Nigerian diaspora to their country of heritage are collectively large, giving tends to be fragmented, ad hoc, or limited to the household level. Remittances and other private transfers, including charitable and philanthropic giving, are also susceptible to changes in senders’ income and economic status, making them potentially unreliable as source of long-term, sustainable funding. There is, however, a real opportunity to make Nigerian diaspora philanthropy more sustained, strategic, and far-reaching. In Africa, alongside informal remittances, there has been growth in formal charitable giving, including through philanthropy. Moreover, a growing number of high earners in the diaspora have been embracing entrepreneurship, impact investing, and encouraging capacity-building and skills training to drive economic transformation in Nigeria. This trend has the potential to further harness the diaspora’s financial capital, intellectual power, and deep cultural knowledge to co-create Nigeria’s future, particularly if the fragmented efforts of diaspora philanthropists are coalesced and channeled strategically to boost their impact.

Interviewees for this report expressed a wide range of motivations for giving, emphasizing their culture alongside a desire to see their community and country uplifted and strengthened. Franklin Amoo, managing partner of Baylis Emerging Markets in New York, explained his motivation in an interview with FP Analytics, sharing, “The only people who are going to successfully develop Africa are Africans … and the only people who are going to fix Nigeria’s [problems] are Nigerians.”

Charitable giving is enshrined in both Christianity and Islam, two dominant religions practiced in Nigeria, while generosity and community are longstanding values inherent to the culture of various ethnic groups wtihin the country. For example, Yoruba traditions like “ajo” and “esusu” refer to trust-based group savings that have helped communities to survive financial challenges for generaitons, while Igbo tradition encourages “aku ruo ulo”—that “wealth should reach home.” As Ms. Ifeanyichukwu, co-founder of Antonia’s Women and Children’s Foundation (AWACF) and a member of the Afropop group SHiiKANE explained, “If your hands are open because you’re giving, they’re also open so you can receive again. But if your hands are closed, then you can’t. There’s definitely a spiritual aspect to it.”

Ms. Ifeanyichukwu emphasized the importance of family legacy and a desire to build on her mother’s small-scale generosity in her and her siblings’ work. When their mother passed away, they set up the Antonia’s Women and Children Foundation in her name:

Multiple interviewees cited a desire to give back to and improve the educational institutions from which they benefited, with several donating to their alma maters either directly or through their alumni associations, and funding education within their home communities or chosen professions. For example, one FP Analytics interviewee, a dentist trained in Nigeria who is now working in the United States, frequently shares knowledge and donates equipment to his dental school in order to support new generations of Nigerian dental professionals. Others, such as Ladé Araba, president of the Visiola Foundation, advocated for funding primary and secondary education as a way of building lifelong skills and improving Nigeria’s economic development in the long term.

Dr. Grace Ogiehor-Enoma, who founded the Nigerian Nurses Association of USA and co-founded the National Association of Nigerian Nurses in North America, worked to rehabilitate her alma mater, the Edo State College of Nursing, so it could attract more female students. She engaged in a dialogue with the school and the Edo State government and was able to rehabilitate the school through the Nigerian Nurses Association and state government. In an interview with FP Analytics, she said: “I was there in 2021 when they opened the school back [after COVID-19], and they admitted 100 students at that time. Now fast-forward to four years later, they have over 1,000 students in that school right now, and they graduated the first set in October 2024. . . . Many families will now be positively impacted by the growing number of nurses and the work they do.”

Philanthropy offers numerous pathways for members of the diaspora to increase the impact of their funds. While remittances are typically small money transfers used for subsistence, diaspora philanthropy is frequently characterized by larger sums targeted toward the systemic issues and challenges in the person’s home country, usually through formal organizations established in either that country or abroad. Investment—particularly in the form of impact investing, which seeks a social return as well as a monetary return, and venture capital—is also growing within Nigeria and throughout Africa. Eric Guichard, founder of Homestrings—a global engagement platform that facilitates diaspora investments—noted the growing role of the diaspora in impact investment and said investors increasingly desire to see non-financial returns. “In our experience, the diaspora wanted to see impact on employment, impact on education, impact on potentially a company growing from being a country footprint to a regional footprint to a continental footprint,” Guichard said. “They were happy to contribute to that and the ramification of that growth.”

The idea of philanthropy as a form of investment was repeated by multiple interviewees and participants in the FP Analytics–Ford Foundation closed-door roundtable and highlights the ways in which philanthropists can learn from investors. Reflecting on this, Dr. Lilian Ajayi Ore, founder and CEO of the Global Connections for Women Foundation in New York, shared: “I see philanthropy and investment as mutually reinforcing—not mutually exclusive. They work hand in hand. Philanthropy, when approached thoughtfully, is an investment for long-term and sustainable impact.”

Through their wealth and connections, high-earning members of the diaspora undertake philanthropy in their country of origin in a number of ways. These approaches include using endowed family or private foundations to engage in professional grantmaking; establishing donor-advised funds; funding large infrastructure or education-related projects; co-financing or engaging in public-private partnerships, such as matching fund models or co-designing and implementing training with government or international agencies; and collaborating with multilateral development banks, as has been documented in both Mexico and the Philippines. Participants in the FP–Ford private roundtable as well as research interviewees described a variety of vectors through which they began or continue to give—including alumni associations, organizations for Nigerians abroad, and professional networks, as well as through foundations and NGOs they founded themselves. (See the Diaspora Philanthropic Ecosystem for a map of various stakeholders). Identifying, understanding, and engaging with these pathways for philanthropy can enable stakeholders to provide support, information, and capacity-building, therefore facilitating a greater volume of more strategically deployed funds.

Ijeoma Anadu Okoli, co-founder and executive director of Umu Igbo Unite, a nonprofit focused on connecting the Igbo diaspora, explained how UIU’s philanthropic efforts in Nigeria, through UIUCares, differ from traditional remittances: “The reality is, if our government were fulfilling its responsibilities, we wouldn’t need to step in the way we do. We would love to build meaningful partnerships with government institutions, but that requires willing stakeholders who are equally aligned with our mission. Until then, we prefer to direct our resources to the people and communities that truly need support, rather than funnel them through government channels that haven’t delivered consistent results. Through our UIUCares Foundation, we are empowering communities and actively working to rebuild the economy back home. For example, our UIUCares office in the East, funded by diaspora-led fundraising, has provided scholarships for students, expanded access to trade schools, supported food distribution efforts, reconstructed classrooms and bathrooms, hosted clothing drives, and much more. Just this summer, we organized a health care drive, another clothing drive, and a basketball camp. We launch new projects based on the needs we identify on the ground.”

These varied motivations for giving can be harnessed to encourage diaspora giving channeled toward Nigeria’s development priorities, whether through direct engagement by the government or through collaborations with domestic Nigerian NGOs, philanthropic foundations, and businesses. Many interviewees for this report expressed a desire to not only give more than they have to date but to do so more strategically, particularly in light of shortfalls in ODA and development finance.

“Many of us are already sending money to family members, but how can we capitalize on the power of pooling our resources to create a greater impact?” Asari Aniagolu, an international transactions and commercial disputes attorney based in New York, noted in an interview with FP Analytics.

Stakeholders seeking to engage diaspora philanthropists or encourage more people to give more strategically may need to adjust their language and terminology in order to connect with as many people as possible and facilitate widespread and sustained giving. Framing giving through a narrative of economic empowerment and capacity-building may be effective, as it taps into many people’s desires to see communities in their ancestral homelands grow and prosper. Additionally, the increasing trend of impact investment, particularly among younger members of the diaspora, could catalyze greater diaspora engagement, as this approach encourages would-be philanthropists to focus their funding on SDG priorities and social entrepreneurship.