The Abdul Samad Rabiu Initiative Tuesday announced $100 million annual Africa Fund for social development and renewal in Nigeria and Africa.
The fund will be channeled to education, health and social development sectors, starting with infrastructure and capacity development in these areas.
In a statement announcing the foundation, its founder, Abdul Samad Rabiu said the funds will equally support the efforts of various governments in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa in providing these amenities.
He said the Abdul Samad Rabiu Initiative comes with an Africa Fund endowment of $100 million every year starting from this year, 2021; $50 million to Nigeria and $50 million to the rest of the African continent.
He said that over the years as a corporate, and through the BUA Foundation, he has been actively involved in corporate philanthropy in various sectors – from health, education, community development, water & sanitation, sports, and even more recently, our work on COVID-19.
“Our broad focus is equipping facilities, our researchers, healthcare practitioners and community-level service providers, with the aim of providing sustainable solutions for generations to come.
Continuing, he said: “In that year 2020, when I turned 60, at least two million others turned into memories, taken by this deadly virus. I watched millions become numbers in a global death toll and ancestors in the world beyond. The same pandemic that forced us humans to slow down, now forces our humaneness to square up. The plans I once took time to construct, now take up all my time.
The challenges are manifold in various areas of our lives, from education, on to healthcare, and throughout social development.
Rabiu, who turned 60 last year, said the first cohort for Nigeria will be N1 billion each in grants to six universities in the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria, towards the initiation and upgrading of infrastructure, where applicable.
The universities in the first phase include Ahmadu Bello University, University of Maiduguri, University of Nigeria, University of Benin, University of Ilorin, and University of Ibadan. These grants will be directed towards projects that will be delivered by the Abdul Samad Rabiu Initiative for the project duration.
For accountability, he said that annual reports will be presented with all activities overseen by a sterling board of trustees. “More importantly, I am counting on you as beneficiaries, end-users and therefore custodians of these projects to hold the Abdul Samad Rabiu Initiative to account; contact, commend, recommend or complain to us on asrafrica.org,” he said.
He said funding opportunities of $50 million for the rest of Africa will be announced within the year, adding that talks with stakeholders other partners and announcements will be duly made.
“As the world tries to claw its way back to business as usual, the Abdul Samad Rabiu Initiative’s Africa Fund for Social Development & Renewal aims to be a modest reminder to us all that until our health, education and other development issues are fixed, business as usual in these times, means business as brutal. We pledge to continue to do what we can to support ongoing efforts by various governments to bridge the development divide across Africa,” he said.
