31/07/2026
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With the continued challenges of funding, educational resources and access to good teachers facing so many schools, particularly outside the major cities, BNET has again been approached this year by scores of applications for new grants from many different sources.
As a small Charity with limited scope and our preferred emphasis on teacher training, it has been impossible for us to evaluate most of them. We also want to be as sure as possible that any grant we do give will be used for the positive advancement of as many Nigerian children as possible.
This means personal visits from our Trustees and Representative, before agreeing any grants and again, what with time and security constraints this is often difficult. Nevertheless, it is a vital part of our work and indeed we have had to end our sponsorship of two projects in this last year as our due diligence exposed issues that we felt excluded them from working with us.
So, we prioritise maintaining or expanding existing grants to established beneficiaries.
Some of them I am going to list here as follows, although a fuller description is always available on our website:
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We have now completed our sponsorship of one serving teacher from each of the 36 States + FCT doing their 3-year online NCE course. We sponsor their 2nd & 3rd year fees provided they pass the minimum in their exams each year as well as award a prize of N100,000 to the best student at the end of the course. The prize is the Gary Clark prize named in honour and memory of our late Secretary. We will name the teacher who will receive this prize on our website later this year.
For follow up on this project, we remain indebted to Professor Kabiru Ilyasu who continues to monitor and handle our projects in the North.
As the NTI will no longer be organising the online NCE courses for serving teachers, this will be our final year of sponsorship.
We are in discussions with them as to how we can contribute to promoting teacher training and we expect to decide on this before the end of 2026 and I will hope to report more fully on this next year.
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As I reported last year, our relationship with this school seems to me to be a template for the way BNET can work with schools to maximise the benefits to the school and to the Trust.
Introduced to the school via a member of the Nigerian High Commission here in London, during the height of the Boko Haram problems in the North-East, we have supported them for the last eight years with a range of annual projects proposed by the school management which we have financed.
For the school, knowing we will support them allows them to plan new projects or get help for unexpected setbacks which enables the school to grow. For BNET, we have the satisfaction of knowing our money is well spent and benefiting students that otherwise might not have that opportunity.
This year we have approved a grant of around N2m to refit their nursery & kindergarten classrooms that were badly damaged by flooding two years ago.
In principle we avoid building works but, in this case, we have made an exception, as we have absolute confidence in the school to use the funds as agreed and directed.
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Again, this is an organisation we have supported for many years.
Members will recall they are based in the outskirts of Lagos and arrange after hours activities for local children combining fun & learning.
Their founder Ajoke Adeola attended our 2019 AGM and gave a wonderful review of how the organisation has grown over the last few years thanks, in part, to our sponsorship.
Last year we gave them a grant of N10m to support their work and will be doing so again to assist with operational expenses to give them digital literacy training.
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This is another initiative & project in its fourth year where we sponsor 15 children to attend this school whose parents would otherwise not be able to afford the fees.
This year they have been forced to move premises due to severe increases in rent, but they have found new premises, and we continue to sponsor the 15 children for a total of almost N7m.
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This is the Catholic organisation run by Sister Rita which we have supported for many years.
In her late eighties now, Sister Rita continues to live in Kaduna and run her Foundation that supports childrenβs education in rural communities of South Kaduna.
Last year we gave them a grant to purchase various teaching aids β alphabet, number and colour flash cards which were distributed to various State schools in Kaduna State.
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This is a new beneficiary.
This is a private school but offering nursery and primary education to children of poor single mothers & parents/widows within the town.
Our representative, Engineer Ojieh, visited the school and we agreed a one-off grant of N2.5m to support various needs. They have now come back with further requests, and another visit will be scheduled but we have approved a further grant for N6m for various projects they have specified.
We continue to look for projects where we know the grant will go and where we know we may maintain some control, before deciding whether to continue to support them.
As always, I want to thank the work of the Trustβs officers and the support of the Trustees and Members without which, none of the projects would have been successful.
Thanks especially to our Secretary Elizabeth Dudley and our Treasurer John Lee, who ensure the administration of the Trust is up to date and financially sound.
Above all, I thank again our Nigerian based Trustees, Engineer Greg Ojieh, Professor Kabiru Isyaku & Dele Fatayi-Williams.
Without their experienced, expert input & interventions in so many areas, BNET would be a far less effective organisation.
Finally, I thank Frances Tarr our retired administrator for coming out for the day to assist us, and Karen Sussex who runs & updates our website, sends out newsletters and has now also taken our membership administration under her efficient control.
And of course I thank all of the members, those of you who are here and those of you who could not make it for your continued support.
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