PISA Foundation Launches $25 Million Initiative to Address Nigeria's Deepening Food Crisis Through Smallholder Cooperatives

Nigeria confronts one of its most severe food crises in decades, with 30.6 million people projected to experience acute food and nutrition insecurity between June and August 2025 according to the FAO's Cadre Harmonisé analysis. This emergency stems from multiple converging factors including prolonged conflict in the northeast, banditry and displacement in the northwest, erratic rainfall and droughts linked to climate change, and inflation that has pushed basic food commodities beyond reach for millions of households.

The PISA Hearts Humanitarian Foundation is positioning itself as a catalyst for sustainable rural transformation through its Smart-Agro Innovation project. This development-focused nonprofit aims to reach 10,000 smallholder farmers and vulnerable households by December 2026 with a comprehensive support package that includes family primary healthcare coverage, modern agronomic training, access to finance and digital financial inclusion, smart-agriculture policy advocacy, climate resilience strategies, and market linkage structures.

The foundation's approach centers on strengthening the smallholder cooperatives that produce more than 70 percent of Nigeria's food but remain underfunded and structurally fragile. These cooperatives serve as the backbone of national food supply but cannot thrive without proper investment according to development specialists working in northern agricultural hubs. The foundation estimates it will require $25 million to fully scale the program across three states, funding it now seeks from global donors, development partners, and impact investors.

At the core of the foundation's model is a three-pronged strategy focusing on financial inclusion for cooperative members through grant and loan systems, capacity building in climate-smart agriculture and cooperative leadership, and market linkages connecting rural farmers to processors, aggregators and off-takers. The model is designed to be scalable, accountable, and community-driven characteristics that global investors increasingly demand. The foundation emphasizes that working with organized groups rather than individuals means every dollar invested strengthens entire communities, not just single households.

For philanthropic organizations and social-impact funds, PISA's model offers compelling benefits including high-impact scalability through cooperative clusters creating immediate multiplier effects, sustainability through capacity building and financial inclusion helping cooperatives become self-reliant, policy influence through structured dialogue with state governments, and visibility opportunities for funders. The foundation provides detailed project blueprints, impact and monitoring frameworks, state-by-state budget estimates, and customizable partnership models aligned with donor priorities through their website at https://www.princeighosadjerefoundation.org. As Nigeria edges closer to another lean season, the urgency grows alongside the opportunity to transform rural food systems through strategic investment in the cooperatives that form the foundation of the country's agricultural production.