Let’s dig into Nigerian NGO’s and find out whether you should stay away from them or not. We’ll cover how to get a grant from NYFF if you’re a young Nigerian, what you need to do in order to apply, how hard it is to become selected and what you should expect from the Nigerian Youth Futures Fund. Analysis by Traders Union.
How Nigeria Youth Futures Fund works on the outside
In 2021 Ford Foundation and McArthur funds sent a total of $5M to a Nigerian NGO called Nigeria Youth Futures Fund (NYFF). Ford Foundation initially approved $3M, and then fulfilled a request for another $155,000 in May of 2024, MacArthur gave another $2M in the same year (expired in 2 years and 6 months) — both grants are long gone in Nigerian fashion. According to the Ford Foundation grant database, LEAP received 13 grants in total since 2006. The $5M grant is aimed at their 5 year program called NYFF.
NYFF’s goal — to empower youth in Nigeria and make them true leaders, educators and general powerhouses for the next generation of economy. In total there’s around 3900 NGOs in Nigeria, but so far all they do is lavish parties and grand demands — real Nigerians are yet to see any results of their actions, papers regarding their financial activities, actual investments and how in fact they help the country to do anything. Why is LEAP Involved? They are the parenting NGO for the NYFF, a kind of layered structure: one NGO over the other and they all share resources and people.
Here’s how NYFF differs from other initiatives in the field:
- They focus collective movements, not individual entrepreneurs to mitigate grant abuse;
- Has a time-bound, grant-focused model: we give X, you promise to deliver on Y, we review those claims later on to assert grants;
- Nigeria-centric;
- Civic Leadership Focus - NYFF grows next generation of leaders, prioritize it over entrepreneurship (TEF), education (ALA, MasterCard), or welfare (YEF);
- Relies not on single-party donations, but on multiple international partners - MacArthur, Ford, Luminate to remain credible and unbiased in their actions;
- They focus organic growth, financing youth movements, not a top-down or selective approaches to mitigate grant abuse;
- Five-year plan horizon instead of perpetual models;
LEAP worked with Ford Foundation, Citi Foundation, World Bank, US Government, UK Foreign & Commonwealth, ALI (Aspen Institute of Africa Leadership Initiative), Nokia and International Youth Foundation. In itself, LEAP has a legitimate goal of empowering agriculture in Nigeria, as envisioned by their founder Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli — a spectacular woman, who started as Business Analyst at McKinsey & Co in 1995 and then grinded her way up so hard she founded and funded an entire LEAP NGO in 2002, where she worked as Founder and CEO from 2002 to 2007, and now active as Board Member in the organisation.
Let’s cross-confirm that NYFF even exists:
- Ford Foundation announced their press-release, disclosing $3M millions to fund the initiative;
- MacArthur upvoted on investment, saying they send $2M more to help out the young Nigerians;
- BD Nigeria reposted the big news about incoming investments;
- Premium Times highlighted the upcoming event.
| On the surface level, Nigeria Youth Futures Fund is a legitimate NGO. |
Does Nigeria Youth Futures Fund have any Red Flags?
Now, a grain of salt into the NYFF.
If you look close enough it sounds like a classic NGO scam: ask for huge grants, create multiple loyal groups, pretend to do a lot of activism, post a lot of posts on social media, pursue vague goals, gatekeeping the names of those who receive grants, tell nothing about the results, draw fancy presentations for investors, pour it all with raw and unverifiable metadata and expect people not to question the validity of your claims. Occasionally — top it up with political education courses on democracy.
To this day, NYFF has no public documents which tell who got how much. On the one hand you can say it is done for the safety of the organizations they invest in, on the other — they received $5M from two independent funds with the initial goal to change Nigeria for the better, and real Nigerians are confused as to where did the money go and where are the promised changes.
Sprinkle it with made-up courses on how to be a successful social media influencer, which allegedly somehow help with the initial goal of getting the food security in South Africa fixes — mind you, this is the original vision of the Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli, the one person who founded LEAP.
Let’s examine something real in the NYFF — photos of their grants, the only verifiable piece of data you can actually trust.
Here is the photo from 2022 where members of the NYFF hold something resembling the bank cheque with a number «123456789» — this one repeats through the years.
In 2022 it was 448 Naira per 1 USD, which effectively lands us 64,5M Naira — keep in mind, from the standpoint of these people they are holding generational wealth. To you this is $144,000, to them — it is money they have to spend the lifetime of their families to earn.
Hot part — cheque mentions no names, no organizations, nothing. Only «24 Organizations development grantees». This effectively means you can’t trace the money granted by the NYFF, and can only take their word for it.
On to the next grant given using the money from a $5M grant.
This is where the Grant Giving by the Nigeria Youth Future Fund becomes interesting, because they finally revealed who receives the grants. In this photo we have a grant to Benue State University made at the end of 2024.
What you must know is that the minimum wage in Nigeria in 2024 was 64,000 Naira. Keep in mind — it is illegal to pay less than the minimum wage. Benue State University has 23 departments and 7 faculties. Let’s assume they have at least 100 full-time employees. This grant of 1,000,000 Naira would be enough to power the Benue State University for less than a week — gracious donation from a $5M NGO, funded by Ford Foundation and MacArthur.
That is a donation to Nigerian Lagos State University. In the «People» section they list every person involved within the University. Only in section «Names starting from A» they list 575 people. Minimum wage in Nigeria is 70,000 Naira. Remember: it is illegal to pay less than minimum wage.
Assume, at least 575 people work at Lagos State University and each of them receives at least 70,000 Naira. It would require 40M Naira to pay for 1 month’s salary for every person involved. This grant of 2,500,000 Naira taken from 3 payments of $5M by Ford Foundation and MacArthur would be enough to power the university for 1 day and 6 hours.
Let’s step back a bit and assume not all of the 575 people are involved with the university as closely as we might expect and they are volunteers. But we can’t — they are listed as security officers, accountants, registry, health services, auditors, senior clerical officers (whatever that means) and so on: people of legitimate professions.
Next one explores a bit of LEAP Africa, the parenting NGO.
For some reason, LEAP who received $5M from Ford and MacArthur, claiming to be non-profit, tries to sell books for profit, multiple different books in fact: on how to get a job, how to lead a youth, how to beat corporate competition, how to retain top talent for your company, how to create an ethical company. The priciest one is on how to navigate youth years — 5000 Naira, to Nigerians that's 1/14 of their minimum wage and many people in Nigeria live far below the poverty line.
Here are other minor red flags about Nigeria Youth Futures Fund:
- No evidence of their investment changing anything; There are news articles, but there is nothing about who, where, when, how;
- It seems as investments are going somewhere, but there is no direct implication as where does it goes, who receives it, only made up numbers;
- Multiple AI's confirm that at some point in time people complained about NYFF on Nairaland, but posts are removed;
- No negative or positive feedback anywhere on the web: Trustpilot, Nairaland, G2, Yelp and others are empty, no mentions of how legitimate this program are from third parties;
- Exact company registration details are not listed in the WHOIS section of the original website: no names, phone numbers, e-mails, addresses — it’s all empty.
| On the deeper level, Nigeria Youth Futures Fund may sound sketchy, but it can be just regular old NGO corruption, not intentional malice. |
How to Apply for Nigeria Youth Futures Fund Grant in 2025
NYFF regularly looks for new people to join their programs and if that's not enough — LEAP looks to hire sales managers and representatives.
Here is the graph with the timeline of Grant-Making Activities for the Nigeria Youth Future Fund:
Whom NYFF is interested in?
Here's a list of requirements, you'd need:
- To be an undergraduate 18 to 35, at any higher education institution in Nigeria (Preferably, accredited);
- Ready to willingly participate for 5 months and devote 85% of your time to the cause;
- Have stable internet connection 24/7, and phone or a computer at hand;
- A proof of studentship: ID card, course from the current session;
- You'd also need to show up to 10 mandatory webinars on what you're going to do;
What NYFF would want from you? Be ready to:
- Make change, and have a vision about the bright future of Nigeria;
- Politically educate members of your community about upcoming 2027 elections, their rights and what election can change for them;
- Come with vision about the future of the Nigeria: ideas how to unite your community, how to resolve inter-tribal and communal problems, how to increase inclusivity within said community;
- Have a project that can empower community members, enlighten on their rights, and educate them on how to combat injustice;
What will you get?
- Leadership Tutoring, access to micro-grant system to shape your projects, participation in national debates (not guaranteed), recognition as a leader driving for a change;
- Grants from 200,000 and up to 2.5M Naira;
How to apply to Nigeria Youth Futures Fund?
Follow this link: https://nigeriayouthfund.org/yldp-application/
Want to know more? Here’s the official NYFF Grant Documentation:
https://leapafrica.smapply.io/prog/nyff_development_and_individual_grant_application-_2025/
Traders Union Experts: The Future of Youth Investments in Nigeria
Bright, with occasional corruption, and some financial turmoil due to rapid Naira inflation. With around 3900 NGOs, the future of the youth in Nigeria should be in the right hands, and multiple incoming grants are the best sign that this industry is moving in the right direction ~!
But off with jokes — real Nigerians are yet to see the impact of multiple NGOs doing their best to provide funding to local communities. Who decides which communities deserve more or less money, in a sense, has the power to influence and shape the country.
There exists a real possibility such organizations may be used to influence the elections in Nigeria, as multiple politicians were accused of vote-buying in the past. Fortunately, when such NGOs are funded by foreign investors, special watchdogs are appointed to carefully watch over the operation to ensure everything goes smoothly.
Does the Future Youth Futures Fund have appointed watchdogs? Yes, in fact, they have 3 watchdogs, but one comes directly from the LEAP, and two others are appointed by the Ford Foundation and MacArthur Foundation. You can see them on the picture below:
About the Author
Hello, I’m Kelechi Ehiogu, an expert at Traders Union. Nice to meet you, thanks for reading!
My background: Financial writer with over 500 published articles on Forex, CFDs, stocks, and cryptos. Active long— and mid-term Forex/CFD trader with 5 years of experience. Alumnus of Federal University of Technology Owerri, Nigeria.
Want to know the truth behind NGOs and learn how to pull yourself out of the financial trap of perpetual inflation?
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