Nigeria
Good Governance Africa - Nigeria (GGA-Nigeria) Aims to contribute to good governance, through research, policy engagement and other activities that help promote sustainable socio-economic development in Africa’s largest economy and most populous country.Three Research Pillars
The GGA-Nigeria research stream is our core activity and is organised around three thematic pillars; each reflects Nigeria’s pressing challenges and impending opportunities:
Programmes
As the pre-eminent centre of excellence working to improve governance in the country, GGA-Nigeria’s activities are organised around three core thematic pillars that reflect Nigeria’s most pressing challenges and opportunities:
Improving the Business Environment (BIZ-ENV PROGRAMME)
This programme covers analysis of “software” issues that currently constrain well-functioning markets and dynamic business sectors in Nigeria. Priority themes include enhanced corporate governance, competitiveness and corporate sustainability and responsibility. The programme aims to lead pioneering research on standardised reporting and transparent accounting, which applies to both government and business.
Programmes
As the pre-eminent centre of excellence working to improve governance in the country, GGA-Nigeria’s activities are organised around three core thematic pillars that reflect Nigeria’s most pressing challenges and opportunities:
Improving the Business Environment (BIZ-ENV PROGRAMME)
This programme covers analysis of “software” issues that currently constrain well-functioning markets and dynamic business sectors in Nigeria. Priority themes include enhanced corporate governance, competitiveness and corporate sustainability and responsibility. The programme aims to lead pioneering research on standardised reporting and transparent accounting, which applies to both government and business.
Programmes
As the pre-eminent centre of excellence working to improve governance in the country, GGA-Nigeria’s activities are organised around three core thematic pillars that reflect Nigeria’s most pressing challenges and opportunities:
Improving the Business Environment (BIZ-ENV PROGRAMME)
This programme covers analysis of “software” issues that currently constrain well-functioning markets and dynamic business sectors in Nigeria. Priority themes include enhanced corporate governance, competitiveness and corporate sustainability and responsibility. The programme aims to lead pioneering research on standardised reporting and transparent accounting, which applies to both government and business.
Extractives, Power and Oil Sector Reform (EXT-REF PROGRAMME)
This programme is concerned with the reform of Nigeria’s extractive industries (oil and gas, and the re-emerging mining sector), which together constitute the primary, sources of government revenue, even though the overall share of extractives has shrunk significantly to just over 10% of Nigeria’s increasingly diversified economy. Key themes of this programme include the reform of taxation and overall fiscal provisions in these sectors that can help Nigeria recalibrate its focus from “Gas-for-Export” to “Gas-to-Power” projects.
Enabling Innovation and Sustainability Drivers (INN-SUS PROGRAMME)
This programme aims to uncover and upscale successful governance innovations by connecting them to sources of technical and financial support. It will work to unearth successful governance experiments and tested local models of sustainable transformation. By helping to “tell the story”, this programme hopes to help turn evidence-led innovations into replicable solutions that can, in time, be applied and scaled-up across all of Nigeria’s 36 states. The programme will pay particular attention to locally inspired accountability frameworks, youth, gender and empowerment, climate innovations, as well as agricultural development and catalysts at all levels of government in Nigeria.
Our publications
Lakurawa’s expanding shadow: coercion and religious manipulation in Northwest Nigeria
“As I sat with the man I had come to see, two Lakurawa fighters approached us. They questioned my identity, and the man quickly introduced me as his brother, a trader from Sokoto. One of the...
Unseen advances, quiet offensives: ISWAP’s strategic resurgence and the limits of Nigeria’s military response
This report examines emerging evidence of a potential resurgence of Boko Haram, particularly its Islamic State-aligned faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), following a period of...
Growing alliance between jihadis and criminals challenges Nigeria’s approach to end farmer-herder conflict
Over the past two decades, the conflict between crop farmers and herders has been a recurring issue, resulting in significant loss of life, displacement, and economic instability. What started with...
Lakurawa’s expanding shadow: coercion and religious manipulation in Northwest Nigeria
“As I sat with the man I had come to see, two Lakurawa fighters approached us. They questioned my identity, and the man quickly introduced me as his brother, a trader from Sokoto. One of the...
Unseen advances, quiet offensives: ISWAP’s strategic resurgence and the limits of Nigeria’s military response
This report examines emerging evidence of a potential resurgence of Boko Haram, particularly its Islamic State-aligned faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), following a period of...
Growing alliance between jihadis and criminals challenges Nigeria’s approach to end farmer-herder conflict
Over the past two decades, the conflict between crop farmers and herders has been a recurring issue, resulting in significant loss of life, displacement, and economic instability. What started with...
From the Levant to Lake Chad: ISIS fighters fuel ISWAP resurgence
With foreign expertise now reshaping battlefield dynamics in the Lake Chad Basin and raising the stakes for regional security, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) is proving that it is no...
News from the region
Quickly access all the latest news, articles and press releases from our centres operating in Nigeria
Lakurawa’s expanding shadow: coercion and religious manipulation in Northwest Nigeria
“As I sat with the man I had come to see, two Lakurawa fighters approached us. They questioned my identity, and the man quickly introduced me as his brother, a trader from Sokoto. One of the...
From the Levant to Lake Chad: ISIS fighters fuel ISWAP resurgence
With foreign expertise now reshaping battlefield dynamics in the Lake Chad Basin and raising the stakes for regional security, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) is proving that it is no...
Nigeria oil and gas reform commendable, but execution still the missing link
Over the years, Nigeria's oil and gas sector has been plagued by weak management, lack of accountability, defective leadership, and reactive regulation, which has caused the country to lose ground...
Lakurawa’s expanding shadow: coercion and religious manipulation in Northwest Nigeria
“As I sat with the man I had come to see, two Lakurawa fighters approached us. They questioned my identity, and the man quickly introduced me as his brother, a trader from Sokoto. One of the...
From the Levant to Lake Chad: ISIS fighters fuel ISWAP resurgence
With foreign expertise now reshaping battlefield dynamics in the Lake Chad Basin and raising the stakes for regional security, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) is proving that it is no...
Nigeria oil and gas reform commendable, but execution still the missing link
Over the years, Nigeria's oil and gas sector has been plagued by weak management, lack of accountability, defective leadership, and reactive regulation, which has caused the country to lose ground...
A silver lining? The US aid freeze should spur Nigeria to greater self-reliance
Foreign aid has never been the solution to Nigeria’s multiple development challenges. However, the halt to US development assistance and the de facto shutdown of the United States Agency for...
GGA Nigeria
Dr Ola Bello
GGA Executive Directors
Oladiran (Ola) Bello obtained both his MPhil and PhD degrees in International Relations from the University of Cambridge and also holds a First Class BSc degree from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He has worked for organisations including the United Nations (New York) and Management Systems International (Washington DC), Merchant International Group (London) and Arthur Andersen (later KPMG). Dr Ola Bello has more than 10 years of experience in research and policy advisory, including on governance and extractive sector reform; sustainable development; and international development cooperation (including in EU-Africa relations). He spent three years with FRIDE (Spain) managing a donor-funded programme on the EU’s role in managing fragility and resource governance in select African countries. In 2012-2015, he was Head, Governance of Africa’s Resource Programme (GARP) at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) and also functioned as head of SAIIA’s Cape Town office. Ola is spearheading GGA's technical support to Nigerian reform, including delivering ethics training for senior Nigerian judicial officers and change-makers (2017-2019). He's also working to expand GGA's role as in-country resource centre for multilateral consultative missions to Nigeria's ministries and parastatals. These missions include the UNECA/AU mineral sector governance team.
Fisayo Alo
Author
Fisayo Alo is a Senior Researcher at Good Governance Africa Nigeria where he coordinates and supports research efforts. Fisayo has fifteen years of experience working in the development consulting, research, quality control, and community engagement. His interests include citizen participation in governance, policy analysis, economic development, and sustainable community development. Fisayo holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration (University of Lagos), a Post Graduate Diploma (PDG) in Agricultural Extension and Rural Development (Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta), a Certificate in Ethical Circular Economy (Arizona State University), and a B Sc. degree in Microbiology from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU). He has managed a number of development projects and agricultural value chain studies for International donor agencies, such as USAID, FCDO, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and GTZ.
Eniayo Ibirogba
Author
Eniayo Ibirogba is a law graduate from the University of Buckingham, United Kingdom. Before studying law he got a degree in international law and diplomacy from Babcock university, Ogun state, Nigeria. His core interests are policy advisory, community development and human rights.
Julia Bello-Schunemann
Author
Dr Julia Bello-Schünemann is a multilingual research consultant. She is versed in integrated forecasting across sectors (including demographics, infrastructure, economics, conflict and violence, etc.), trend and risk analysis, data analysis, policy advice for governments and international organisations. Her expertise straddles Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the European Union. She possesses vast experience in project management, fundraising, strategic planning, multi-stakeholder consultations, training and facilitation. She is currently an Associate Senior Research Consultant with Good Governance Africa-Nigeria. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the Complutense University Madrid, Spain and an MA in Communication, Political Science and Economics from Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich in Germany.
Mark Adogah
GGA Chairmen
Mr Mark Adogah was appointed Chairman GGA-Nigeria in 2021. Mark is a Director at Citibank Nigeria’s Banking, Capital Markets and Advisory (BCMA) business. He is responsible for driving and supervising Citi Nigeria’s strategy for multinational Branded Consumer Goods, Aviation and Oil Services clients. He has been involved in several landmark lending and financing transactions in the industry. Mark has over 23 years’ experience in the areas of financial statements audit and assurance, business advisory and corporate and investment banking. He started his career with Arthur Andersen in Nigeria (now KPMG Professional Services) and worked in the Corporate Bank of Zenith Bank Plc and the Corporate Finance desk of FCMB Capital Markets Limited before joining Citibank. He has been in a senior management role since joining Citibank as an Assistant General Manager in October 2008. He is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), a member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and The Chartered Institutes of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN). Mark holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Accounting and a Master's degree focused in Finance and Investments from the University of Exeter, United Kingdom. Mark has extensive local and international training on leadership, negotiation, derivatives, risk management, advanced credit skills and other areas of accounting, finance and banking. He is happily married with children.
Kabir Hassan
Author
Kabir Hassan is a researcher at Good Governance Africa-Nigeria. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Transport Planning and Policy from Lagos State University, Nigeria. His research focuses on sustainable transport development and planning, with a strong interest in policies that promote equitable and efficient mobility systems. Kabir is actively involved in community development work, especially youth capacity-building initiatives and youth civic engagements. He has been part of notable transport-related projects through his roles at the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) and TSL Metroline Limited, where he was involved in road transport network operations and survey analysis.
Lawal Asiata
Author
Lawal Asiata is currently the office manager and project coordinator for GGA Nigeria. She has worked as a librarian and personal assistant in both private and government parastatals. Asiata holds a bachelor's degree in Library, Archival and Information Studies from University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Her hobbies include reading and travelling.
Malik Samuel
Author
Malik Samuel is a senior researcher at Good Governance Africa-Nigeria. Before joining GGA, he was a researcher with the Institute for Security Studies, specialising in the Boko Haram conflict in the Lake Chad Basin Region. Malik also worked as a conflict researcher with Amnesty International Nigeria. He was also a Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders field communications manager in Northeast Nigeria. Before that, he was an investigative journalist at the Abuja-based International Centre for Investigative Reporting. Malik holds a Master's degree in Conflict, Peace, and Security from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).
Adejumo Kabir Adeniyi
Author
Adejumo Kabir Adeniyi is a senior researcher at Good Governance Africa-Nigeria. He is an expert with many years of experience in community development work and governance accountability sector. Before joining GGA, Adejumo worked at Premium Times and HumAngle Media, two of Nigeria’s biggest newspapers specialising on conflict and accountability reporting. His work has featured on esteemed local and international platforms, including Zam magazine, El Pais, IJNet, Premium Times, HumAngle Media and TheCable among others. He is a 2019 recipient of the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence, a 2020 recipient of the Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award in the United Kingdom, and a 2021 recipient of NAREP Oil and Gas Fellowship.
Mariam Hassan
Author
Mariam Hassan is a researcher at Good Governance Africa-Nigeria. She is a graduate of Public Health from Babcock University, Nigeria. Mariam has contributed to health interventions through her engagements at Action Health Incorporated, where she supported adolescent health programmes, and at the Youth Clinic of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, where she gained hands-on experience in youth-centred healthcare services. She is passionate about creating positive change in communities through research and advocacy, and also supports capacity-building initiatives that specifically target women and young people.
GGA Nigeria
GGA – NIGERIA
GGA-suite (G-12),
Regus, The Waterside,
5, Admiralty Rd, off Admiralty way,
Lekki Phase 1,
Lagos, Nigeria.
Tel: +234 1 4627411-3
Email: info.nigeria@gga.org
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Improving the Business Environment (BIZ-ENV PROGRAMME)
This programme focuses on myriad “software” issues, which currently constrain well-functioning markets and dynamic business sectors in Nigeria.
These include business regulations, institutions and other determinants of private-sector growth and shared economic prosperity.
We proffer policy alternatives to help address constraints and unleash Nigeria’s economic potential.
Priority themes include enhanced corporate governance, competitiveness and corporate sustainability and responsibility.
Through pioneering research and policy innovations, we seek to crystallise the reciprocal responsibilities required of government, business and the wider community in driving a change and transformation agenda.
Extractives, Power and Oil Sector Reform (EXT-REF PROGRAMME)
Reform of Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, along with the re-emerging mining sector, provides the focus for this programme. Closely related is Nigeria’s power shortage, which continues to constrain the economy overall. Although the share of extractive rents in aggregate national output fell after the 2013 economic rebasing, oil and gas remain the major source of government revenue.
Being key levers for social and economic transformation, we seek to tease out innovations and governance re-engineering to promote efficiency, plug leakages and drive competition in these “lifeline” sectors. Priority themes for the programme include transparency and restructuring in oil and gas; the actualisation of Nigeria’s “gas-to-power” push to boost equitable electricity access; and inclusive approaches to mineral resources development, with a focus on industrialisation and structural economic transformation.
Enabling Innovation and Sustainability Drivers (INN-SUS PROGRAMME)
This programme aims to analyse, understand and upscale governance innovation. It seeks to systematise knowledge around successful governance experiments and sustainable local transformation models.
In “telling” transformation stories, the programme will help to turn the evidence on innovations into replicable solutions that can be applied and scaled up in relevant contexts across Nigeria’s 36 states.
The programme will pay particular attention to locally inspired accountability frameworks; youth, gender and empowerment ideas; climate innovations, as well as agricultural development and other catalysts at multiple levels of governance in Nigeria.
Where relevant, GGA-Nigeria seeks to play the role of catalyst for governance innovators to link up with higher policy levels and processes, as well as facilitating access to technical and financial support.
