The Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation Is Supporting a High-Functioning Nigerian Civil Service

Established in 2020 by husband and wife Aigboje and Ofovwe Aig-Imoukhuede, the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation promotes and supports sustainable development in Nigeria. Recognizing the need for a functional, trustworthy civil service to underpin Nigerian economic growth, prosperity, and well-being, the Foundation is committed to public-sector capacity-building. As Co-Founder and Executive Vice Chair Ofovwe Aig-Imoukhuede noted in an interview with FP Analytics, “What we are trying to do is strengthen the ability of the public sector to thrive, and it will only do so when there are good public servants in each of the ministries, departments, and agencies, when they have the training, the resources, and the organizational structure.”

What we are trying to do is strengthen the ability of the public sector to thrive, and it will only do so when there are good public servants in each of the ministries, departments, and agencies, when they have the training, the resources, and the organizational structure.

— Ofovwe Aig-Imoukhuede, Co-Founder and Executive Vice Chair

The Foundation works toward its goals via three main pillars, each of which consists of different programs and issue areas. The first pillar, Developing Leaders in Government, is delivered through scholarship, fellowship, and leadership programs, all in partnership with the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government; custom training designed for and delivered to meet the specific capacity needs of Nigerian civil servants across the government; and, the AIG Senior Leaders Programme, for Federal Permanent Secretaries. To-date, 43 Permanent Secretaries have been through the program, while the scholarship to Oxford has been granted to 34 Master’s in Public Policy students, and the Public Leaders Program has been completed by 237 people. In addition, the Foundation supports training initiatives run by the Nigerian Federal Civil Service.

The second pillar, Supporting Public Sector Reform, encompasses three issue areas: civil service reform, undertaken through the development of policy and guidelines, funding for project implementation, and other programs; public-private collaboration and advocacy; and increasing accountability, through Public Sector Performance Index, and a research series focused on the planning and delivery of past public-sector initiatives.

The third pillar focuses on Access to Primary Health Care. This work, toward which 3 billion naira have been committed to-date, includes the Adopt-A-Healthcare-Facility program, which aims to establish at least one primary health care facility in each of Nigeria’s 774 local government areas; thought leadership, through the design and development of research to address Nigeria’s health care challenges; and advocacy and partnership for improved health care.

For sustainability, you have to involve the people who are on the ground. . . . The people at the grassroots are the ones who will tell you, ‘These are pain points, and these are issues that we have.’ And then together you can sit down, bring in the knowledge.

— Ofovwe Aig-Imoukhuede, Executive Vice Chair

Ofovwe Aig-Imoukhuede attributes much of the Foundation’s success to its commitment to flexibility and co-creation, as well as the professional standards the organization adheres to. The Foundation’s programs are developed in consultation with those it seeks to support, including civil servants themselves, and the Nigerian government more broadly, to ensure that its offerings are relevant and impactful. She and her husband bring their years of experience in finance and law, as well as their previous philanthropy, into their work as Executive Vice Chair and Chair of the Foundation, respectively. Both split their time between Nigeria and other countries, and they have done so throughout their careers — being Nigerian-led, and guided by the needs and priorities of Nigerian civil servants themselves, are fundamental to the Foundation’s work. As Ofovwe Aig-Imoukhuede explained, “For sustainability, you have to involve the people who are on the ground. . . . The people at the grassroots are the ones who will tell you, ‘These are pain points, and these are issues that we have.’ And then together you can sit down, bring in the knowledge that you have, the expertise that you have, and say, ‘How do we solve this problem?’” As the Foundation’s leadership formulates its next strategic plan, and reflects on its achievements since 2020, potential areas for growth and expanded impact could include collaboration with further state governments, particularly on capacity-building and training, and an expansion of its scholarship and leadership programs.

While the work the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation undertakes is ambitious, Ofovwe Aig-Imoukhuede stressed that it represents a locally rooted, long-term investment in Nigeria’s future, and that it is key for their partners and donors to recognize the importance of long-term change: “These things take time, and therefore it’s very important that we start doing them now.” At the same time, she stressed the urgency of the Foundation’s work for driving sustainable development in Nigeria, noting, “If we continue saying ‘these things take time,’ then we won’t ever get started, and then it will never get done. . . . We don’t think that what we’re doing is going to solve the problem tomorrow, but in 10 years, 15, 20 years, some of the work that we are doing now is going to result in impact. . . . It’s not huge, but transformation is happening.”