The Malala Fund has announced its support for a youth-led coalition of four organisations working to advance Nigeria’s national strategy to end child marriage by prioritising girls’ education as a key policy solution.
In a statement released on Friday, the fund disclosed that a two-year Joint Action Grant (JAG) will finance coordinated advocacy and implementation efforts at the national level and across Adamawa, Borno, Kano, Kaduna, and Bauchi states.
The coalition is led by Education As a Vaccine (EVA) in partnership with YouthHubAfrica (YHA), the Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA), and the Onelife Initiative.
According to the Malala Fund, more than 30 per cent of Nigerian girls are married before the age of 18, with the figure rising to nearly 50 per cent in parts of the North-East and North-West. The organisation noted that child marriage remains widespread partly because many girls are pushed out of school, despite evidence showing that completing education significantly delays marriage.
Referencing new research from Accelerate Hub—an Africa-focused research initiative led by the University of Oxford and the University of Cape Town—the fund said that reaching more unmarried, out-of-school adolescent girls in northern Nigeria with effective interventions, including education support, could cut child marriage rates by about two-thirds within four years. The analysis, based on a modelled investment of $114 million, suggests potential economic returns exceeding 21 times the initial investment.
“The tipping point is school dropout: when girls leave school, marriage often becomes the alternative. When they stay in school, marriage is delayed,” the statement said.
Nabila Aguele, Chief Executive of the Malala Fund in Nigeria, stressed that ending child marriage requires more than goodwill. “It demands political will and a clear, actionable pathway,” she said. “This grant empowers youth leaders to drive collective action and move Nigeria’s National Strategy off paper and into practice—through concrete state plans, sustainable financing, and accountability for results.”
She added that ensuring girls remain in school through secondary education—whether married or unmarried—is one of the most effective policy measures governments can adopt to end child marriage. “Education has long been recognised as a critical solution. The urgency now is to turn that understanding into coordinated, cross-sectoral action that reaches girls where they are,” she said.
The Malala Fund further explained that the coalition will advocate for states to domesticate and implement the National Strategy to End Child Marriage, generate evidence on the drivers of girls’ school dropout, and push for the adoption of national re-entry policies that allow married and pregnant girls to return to education.
Also speaking, Toyin Chukwudozie, Executive Director of EVA, said the partnership is focused on keeping girls in school through secondary education by addressing the systemic gaps that force them out.
