The fund was established by the Open Society, MacArthur and Ford Foundations to aid the current Nigerian government in its campaign to fight corruption and institute criminal justice reforms. It aims to contribute towards the advancement of accountability and probity in public service in Nigeria by ensuring that those who abuse the public trust are predictably brought to justice. TrustAfrica oversees and administers the fund’s activities. 

Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa and the new administration has demonstrated strong political will in tackling corruption. The fund is supporting that effort by looking at innovative ways to use technologies like social media and citizen participation to increase public opprobrium for corruption. We are collaborating with partners to build synergies, in some cases providing support for institutional capacity building. Future plans may focus on criminal justice reform and other activities, including the establishment of a civil society–government monitoring partnership and assessing the risk of corruption and capacity gaps in institutions that focus on anticorruption and criminal justice. The fund is also looking beyond legal and institutional reform and international processes to influencing behavior at local and national levels.