On Nigeria

Although we have made our final grants under this program and are no longer accepting proposals, we welcome your thoughts on relevant issues.

Through targeted support, we aimed to bolster the momentum around Nigerian-led efforts to strengthen accountability and reduce corruption. Our multifaceted strategy had the following complementary areas of focus:

• Enabling independent Nigerian media and journalism outlets to investigate and expose corruption and share anti-corruption success stories.
• Strengthening the criminal justice system through nationwide adoption and implementation of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act and complementary laws and policies.
• Supporting Nigerian civil society organizations, communities, and social influencers to use media reports to call for action, mobilize to demand accountability, and advocate for policy changes that make it easier to prevent, detect, and punish corruption.
• Promoting behavior change by supporting faith leaders and their communities from across religious traditions to advocate for integrity within their respective religions.
• Supporting performers, creators, and influencers from across Nigeria to produce and share compelling content about corruption and the cost of corruption to Nigerian communities.

Our work and that of our grantee partners is intended to further gender equity and social inclusion as it advances the larger anti-corruption goal. When making grants and carrying out our work, we have been attentive to issues across gender, generation, geography, ability, faith, and ethnicity in the spirit of MacArthur's Just Imperative.

A thriving Nigeria—with its rich natural resources, young and growing population, and continental leadership—is one of the most important needs for the world today. Yet corruption, impunity, and lack of accountability have far-reaching impacts on access to and quality of public services, good governance, the well-being of Nigerians, and civic space, where people can gather to exercise their core rights and freedoms. Nigeria also boasts a diverse and vibrant civil society, growing independent media sector, and strengthened criminal justice system. In recent years, the Federal Government has also introduced reforms designed to prevent and reduce corruption. The problem of corruption, paired with opportunities created by civil society, the media, government, and criminal justice sector reform, set the stage for the On Nigeria Big Bet. In collaboration with stakeholders from civil society, donor partners, government, and academia, we developed a strategy to reduce corruption and improve the quality of life for Nigerians.

We anticipate that this work will lead to the following changes across Nigeria:

• Nigerians recognize the costs of corruption, including the disproportionate effects of corruption on historically disadvantaged groups.
• The Nigerian government consistently and effectively implements policies, programs, and laws, including making public data more accessible, which makes it more difficult to commit corrupt acts.
• The federal government and more states consistently implement the Administration of Criminal Justice Act/Law, respectively. Their improved criminal justice procedures equitably protect historically disadvantaged groups from the repercussions of corruption.
• Nigerian citizens, civil society actors, and other non-state actors—including historically disadvantaged groups—advocate for transparency and accountability, use redress mechanisms to act against corruption, and demand public services.
• A diverse set of media organizations; state institutions, agencies, and officials at various levels; and civil society are present within the system and engaged in tackling corruption. These organizations share a common purpose and coordinate with each other to strengthen their collective impact.

From 2016 to 2024, we supported a diverse set of Nigerian civil society organizations, media outlets, academic institutions, entertainment companies, and government institutions as they worked together to prevent and reduce corruption in Nigeria. The media and journalism component of our work sought to strengthen investigative and data-driven journalism in Nigeria and to reinforce the role played by independent media and individuals in revealing and documenting corruption. This approach was an important part of reaching and galvanizing people and communities across the country in the fight against corruption and generating widespread demand for transparency and accountability.

We aimed to strengthen the criminal justice system in ways that would help combat corruption at all levels, from day-to-day exchanges to acts of grand corruption. This work aimed to improve government effectiveness by supporting organizations that strengthen the legal environment through the implementation of the 2015 Administration of Criminal Justice Act/Law nationally and in select states. As the law is more widely and consistently implemented, it will become easier to prosecute those who commit corruption.

Additionally, we supported efforts to strengthen anti-corruption agencies and implement a range of anti-corruption laws, policies, and practices that make it more difficult to commit corrupt acts.

Advocacy, accountability, and community participation efforts by Nigerian civil society organizations across the country drive policy change to reduce corruption and create opportunities for diverse constituencies of community members to demand change from their local, state, and federal governments. We supported an array of Nigerian entertainment organizations as they explored corruption-related topics in their radio, television, and online programming. We also supported efforts by religious leaders and interfaith organizations to serve as anti-corruption champions and to encourage dialogue at the intersection of corruption, accountability, and religion in Nigerian society.

Evaluation of our work is a critical tool for informing our decision making, leading to better results and more effective stewardship of resources. We develop customized evaluation designs for each of our programs based on the context, problem, opportunity, and approach to the work. Evaluation is not a one-time event. It is an ongoing process of collecting evidence to drive learning, and working together with our grantees to adapt in pursuit of impact.

We have previously engaged EnCompass, LLC and, as of March 2025, transitioned to Itad as our Evaluation and Learning Partner to assess the progress of our strategy, test the assumptions underpinning it, and collect information about the context in which our strategy operates. The focus of these activities is on learning. We aim to understand the extent to which our strategy contributed to strengthening accountability and transparency in Nigeria, how it influenced change, and under what conditions.

Informed by On Nigeria’s first phase of grantmaking, both our approach to the work and our evaluation of that work shifted. The initial evaluation priorities focused on examining our assumptions about how grantees could collectively contribute to meaningful change. A 2019 Evaluation Report built on initial learnings and informed ongoing learning and decision making. During the final phase of our strategy and funding in Nigeria, the evaluation activities were guided by questions that served as a throughline, connecting data collection approaches, evaluation methods, knowledge building, sharing, and action. The learning questions we explored were essential to understanding how our grantees work contributed to desired outcomes and what will endure beyond the Foundation’s funding horizon. All the findings and analysis from these evaluation activities are posted on our website.

In 2025, our Evaluation and Learning Partner is conducting a final evaluation of On Nigeria, through which we hope to better understand what the program achieved, and under what conditions. The final evaluation will also deliver lessons and insights to inform future work, and equip others interested in strengthening accountability—in Nigeria, and beyond—with evidence to drive effective programming.

View all On Nigeria Evaluations

On Nigeria Learning Library