Good News for Nigerian Civil Society as WACSI sets to Launch a Node in the Country
[Abuja, 15 November 2022] Civil society actors in Nigeria will no longer be travelling to Ghana to access the services of the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) as the Institute will be serving them at their doorsteps in the nation’s capital, Abuja.
On 16 November 2022, the Institute will launch its node in Nigeria.
Executive Director of WACSI, Nana Afadzinu said the node will act as a liaison bureau connecting civil society organisations (CSOs) and their partners to the Institute’s rich trainings, mentoring and coaching offerings.
This, she added, was to reinforce WACSI’s mission to strengthen the capacity of CSOs in the country, in the areas of institutional governance, management, and operations to make them resilient in pursuit of their collective mandates.
Afadzinu explained that to be more responsive to the demands of the large number of CSOs in Nigeria, the Institute considered it laudable to make its services easily accessible and affordable to CSOs in the country.
One way to do this, she emphasized “is to address the proximity challenge and especially make the Institute’s services readily available to organisations and civic actors that may not have the means to engage effectively online.”
The WACSI Executive Director was speaking at a press conference convened in Abuja last week ahead of the launch to share the strategic objectives of the new office with the Nigerian media.
She noted that over the years, the Institute has witnessed a keen interest in its programmes by civil society actors in Nigeria.
“Civil society actors in Nigeria have over the years been at the forefront of requesting support and using WACSI’s services and resources every year. Our programmes have so far benefitted over 1392 participants from 1004 organisations in the country,” Afadzinu added.
The node will also help WACSI to address the technological gaps among CSOs in the country through support from TechSoup global. To re-anchor this objective, the Institute will also hold a technology exhibition show alongside the launch.
This, she said, would showcase the technology service offerings available for nonprofit organisations in the country including hardware, software, technical trainings as well as cybersecurity issues to advocate for better policies.
Although WACSI has been working across the 15 West African countries including Nigeria, the launch of a node in the country comes as good news to Nigerian CSOs as it will address proximity challenges, they face in their quest to benefit from the Institute’s services.
