Health
Nigeria’s out-of-school crisis: IA-Foundation expands support for Makoko children, seeks reforms
Deborah Tolu-Kolawole
The IA-Foundation has intensified efforts to keep vulnerable children in school, expanding its educational interventions in Makoko while rallying stakeholders to confront Nigeria’s growing crisis of out-of-school children.
The UK-based non-governmental organisation recently carried out a welfare and academic assessment of children under its educational sponsorship programme in Makoko, unveiled a digital stakeholder portal and announced plans for a high-level summit aimed at addressing barriers to education across the country, according to a statement on Friday.
The June 11 outreach to the waterfront community focused on assessing the wellbeing, school attendance and academic progress of pupils whose tuition fees, uniforms and learning materials are funded by the Foundation.
For many children in Makoko, a densely populated riverside settlement in Lagos often associated with poverty and limited access to social services, the intervention represents more than financial support. It offers a lifeline to children who might otherwise have been excluded from formal education due to economic hardship.
During the visit, Foundation officials engaged directly with children and their families to evaluate learning outcomes and identify additional areas of support needed to ensure the pupils remain in school.
The team also inspected a borehole facility that the organisation had previously installed to provide clean water to community residents. The inspection revealed structural defects that require urgent repairs, particularly to the overhead tank, with rehabilitation work expected to commence soon.
Speaking on the outreach exercise, the Executive Director of IA-Foundation, Ms Funke Sotinwa, said the organisation’s commitment extends beyond paying school fees.
“Our support does not end at paying school fees. We believe in walking alongside these families and ensuring that the environments in which our children grow and learn are dignified and functional,” she said.
The Foundation said the welfare assessment formed part of a broader strategy to tackle the multiple challenges confronting vulnerable children, including inadequate educational resources, poor infrastructure and socio-economic barriers that often push children out of school.
In furtherance of this goal, IA-Foundation on June 16 launched a new digital stakeholder portal designed to improve transparency and deepen engagement with donors, partners and supporters.
According to the organisation, the platform features a dedicated donor interface that allows stakeholders to track projects, monitor impact and participate more actively in programmes aimed at expanding educational opportunities for disadvantaged children.
Founder of the Foundation, Mrs Ronke Adeagbo, described the initiative as a significant milestone in the organisation’s journey.
“We are not simply changing a website. We are building a digital home that reflects the seriousness of our mission and the value we place on every stakeholder in our ecosystem. This portal is our commitment to radical openness — to showing our community exactly what we do, how we do it, and the lives being changed in the process,” she said.
The Foundation is also taking its advocacy to the policy arena.
On June 23, it will host an Executive Breakfast Summit in Lagos themed, “Mind the Gap: Tackling the Crisis of Out-of-School Children in Nigeria.”
The summit is expected to bring together policymakers, development partners, private sector leaders, civil society groups and media practitioners to explore sustainable solutions to Nigeria’s education crisis and its implications for national development.
A major highlight of the event will be the presentation of the Foundation’s policy white paper titled “The Danger of the Knowledge Gap,” which examines how poverty, insecurity, displacement and other structural challenges continue to deprive millions of Nigerian children of access to education.
Expected participants include the Lagos State Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, senior advisers to the Lagos State Governor on Sustainable Development Goals and prominent human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN).
The summit is being supported by FirstBank Plc as headline sponsor, alongside Halogen Group and British Airways as supporting partners.
Nigeria currently has one of the highest numbers of out-of-school children in the world. According to estimates by the United Nations Children’s Fund, about 18.3 million Nigerian children are out of school, with poverty, insecurity, child labour and inadequate educational infrastructure identified as major drivers of the crisis.
Communities such as Makoko are among the hardest hit. Despite their proximity to urban centres, many children living in informal settlements face significant barriers to education, including poor learning facilities, unstable family incomes and limited access to social services.
Education advocates have repeatedly warned that unless urgent action is taken to address these challenges, millions of children risk being trapped in a cycle of poverty and exclusion, with far-reaching consequences for Nigeria’s economic growth and social stability.
Against this backdrop, IA-Foundation said its combination of community-based interventions, technology-driven engagement and policy advocacy is aimed at ensuring that vulnerable children — especially those in underserved communities like Makoko — are not left behind.
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