USAID Funding Cuts: DRPC Awards N85m Grant To 17 Local NGOs

The Development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC), with support from the Ford Foundation, has awarded N85 million to 17 Nigerian indigenous non-profit organisations under its NGO Support Initiative (NSI).

The NSI is designed to cushion the impact of recent funding cuts by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Speaking during the award launch on Monday in Abuja, the Executive Director of dRPC, Dr Judith-Ann Walker, said the grant aims to support NGOs that have lost financial backing from USAID and other international donors over the past year.

Each beneficiary will receive N5 million to implement community-focused projects over a three-month period.

“I congratulate you on being selected for this first cohort of a vital intervention. I urge you to implement your projects with transparency and accountability,” Dr Walker said.

She praised the awardees’ proposals as excellent and underscored the grant’s importance in sustaining civil society organisations during a period of global funding decline.

“The NSI grant is a lifeline that will help local NGOs maintain operations, strengthen capacity, and continue addressing critical social issues,” she added.

In his presentation, the director of programmes at dRPC, Dr Stanley Ukpai, revealed that the U.S. government had recently terminated 83 per cent of USAID programmes globally, cancelling over 5,200 contracts, disrupting essential health services like HIV, TB, and malaria treatments, and causing the loss of more than 1,000 jobs in Nigeria alone.

“This intervention is dRPC’s response to fill the gaps left by these cuts, especially in sectors such as health, education, and economic development,” Ukpai said.

General Shina Ogunbiyi, a master trainer and mentor under the programme, applauded dRPC and the Gates Foundation for earlier investments through the PACFaH@Scale project, which helped build the capacity of NGOs now serving as mentors.

He called on the current grantees to ensure transparency and accountability, noting that their performance could influence the selection of a second funding cohort set to launch in September.

One of the recipients, the executive director of Visionary Women in Agricultural Development in Africa, Mrs Okafor Nkechi, expressed gratitude on behalf of the awardees.

“We thank the dRPC and the Ford Foundation for this timely intervention. It will enable us to continue improving the lives of women in Anambra State, even as global donor support declines,” she said.

Highlights of the ceremony included the handing over of cheques for N5 million to each of the 17 recipients who won the grant.