Emir of Lafiagi Launches ₦20 Million Education Matching Fund to Transform Secondary School

By Usman HARUNA ✔

The Emir of Lafiagi, His Royal Highness Alhaji Mohammed Kudu Kawu, has committed ₦20 million on behalf of the Lafiagi community to launch the Lafiagi Education Matching Fund, a community-led initiative aimed at mobilising additional resources for public education in Lafiagi and surrounding communities.

The initiative is being developed in partnership with the Kwara State Education Trust Fund (KwaraETF) and AlumUnite, with the ₦20 million commitment serving as the foundation for a broader fundraising campaign targeting alumni, diaspora members, philanthropists, corporate organisations, foundations and other friends of Lafiagi.

The pilot project will focus exclusively on Lafiagi Secondary School, established in 1970 as the first secondary school in the Lafiagi Emirate.

After years of infrastructural challenges, the community hopes to transform the school into a model public secondary school through the mobilisation of additional funding and strategic investment.

“This ₦20 Million Is Our Starting Point” — Emir

Speaking on the initiative, Emir of Lafiagi Alhaji Mohammed Kudu Kawu said the community’s contribution demonstrates its determination to take greater responsibility for the educational future of its children.

“The future of Lafiagi depends greatly on the quality of education available to our children. We have therefore decided that the community must play its part.

“This ₦20 million is our starting point, not our destination. We are calling on our sons and daughters at home and abroad, our alumni, friends and partners of Lafiagi to join us in building better schools and better opportunities for our children,” he said.

KwaraETF Backs Community-Led Education Financing

The Chairman of the Kwara State Education Trust Fund, Col. Abdulwahab Ademola Lawal (Rtd.), described the initiative as an opportunity to demonstrate how community ownership can attract broader support for public education.

He said the Lafiagi Education Matching Fund could provide a model for strengthening education financing at the community level.

“The commitment by the Emir and the Lafiagi community demonstrates ownership, while the matching-fund structure creates an opportunity to multiply that commitment through alumni, philanthropy and private-sector support,” Lawal said.

He added that KwaraETF was looking forward to seeing the model succeed in Lafiagi and potentially demonstrate what communities, institutions and education supporters can achieve by working around clearly defined priorities.

₦20 Million to Kickstart Larger Mobilisation

The Executive Secretary of KwaraETF, Oluwadamilola Amolegbe, said the ₦20 million should not be viewed as the total size of the intervention but as the foundation for a much larger resource mobilisation effort.

“This is not simply a ₦20 million education intervention. It is a mechanism for turning community commitment into a much larger pool of resources for public education,” Amolegbe said.

“Lafiagi has put the first money on the table; our job is to build the structure that allows others to come alongside them, with transparency, accountability and clearly defined education outcomes.”

He said the ultimate ambition is to transform Lafiagi Secondary School into a model public secondary school, drawing inspiration from the recently completed prototype public school at Adeta in Ilorin.

According to him, the Lafiagi project will build on the direction of modern public-school infrastructure established by the administration of Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq while adapting it to the specific needs of a secondary school.

“We are not trying to create a parallel vision for public education. We are building on the direction already established by the AbdulRazaq administration through investments such as the Adeta prototype school,” Amolegbe said.

“Our ambition is to bring that same spirit of modern, quality infrastructure to Lafiagi Secondary School, with the community playing a leading role in making it possible.”

AlumUnite to Drive Alumni and Diaspora Engagement

AlumUnite, a key partner in the initiative, will provide the digital and engagement infrastructure needed to connect the Lafiagi community’s initial commitment with a wider network of potential supporters.

Charles Nweke, Co-Founder and CEO of AlumUnite, said the initiative was significant because it was being driven by a community willing to make the first commitment.

“Our role is to help translate that commitment into a wider mobilisation opportunity, connecting Lafiagi’s alumni, diaspora and supporters to clearly defined education needs and making it easier for them to contribute, engage and see the impact of their support,” Nweke said.

Through the partnership, AlumUnite will support campaign development, platform configuration, school needs mapping, donor engagement and reporting.

KwaraETF will oversee programme management, monitoring and evaluation, financial oversight, governance and accountability.

The first phase of the project will involve identifying the school’s priority needs and converting them into clearly defined projects for fundraising and implementation.

The initiative is expected to go beyond the rehabilitation of Lafiagi Secondary School by demonstrating a potentially replicable model for community-based education financing across Kwara State.

With ₦20 million already committed by the Lafiagi community, the organisers are now calling on alumni, diaspora members, philanthropists, businesses, foundations and friends of Lafiagi to support the initiative.

Lafiagi has made the first commitment. The next step is to turn that commitment into a model school for future generations.