Babayemi, Co-Founder, Follow The Money, Hamzat Lawal, Co-Founder/Team
Leader, Follow The Money and Matt O’Reilly, Programme Manager – Indigo
Trust.
– Follow The Money [followthemoneyng.org], a nonprofit initiative of Connected Development [CODE] has been awarded a grant of GBP 9, 648 by Indigo Trust in the United Kingdom, mainly towards the cost of office space, internet, technology support, advertising and marketing.
Follow The Money advocates, tracks and visualizes aid meant for local communities using creative technology tools. The initiative was able to save the lives of about 1,500 children in Bagega, Zamfara state that needs urgent medical attention for lead poisoning.
“Meeting with the team a few months ago during a short trip to Abuja, we were impressed by the dedication and achievements of the team and we are delighted to award them a grant of GBP9,648” said Loren Treisman, Executive of Indigo Trust.
By collecting evidence, conducting interviews, and research within local communities, Follow The Money is able to painstakingly build a picture of problems and issues affecting these communities, they then use this information and their considerable social media skills to create a feedback loop between government and citizens, thus, ensuring transparency and accountability.
“Our open office space will allow us to train government officials on open data and its importance for free, while creating a government engagement strategy which incentivizes government agencies to open their data, become more efficient and connect with the citizens of Nigeria”. Said Hamzat Lawal, the Co-Founder of Follow The Money.
“The office will also serve as a collaboration space for data experts, data analysts, development consultants, investigative journalists, information managers, activist, students and researchers working on ensuring aid gets to local communities it was meant for “ Hamzat further said.
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For more information about Follow The Money, please visit http://followthemoneyng.org
For more information about Indigo Trust, please visit http://indigotrust.org.uk
For more information, kindly contact:
In Zamfara/Abuja, for Follow The Money, Oludotun Babayemi (English) +234-0-813-490-8561 or oludotun@followthemoneyng.org
In Zamfara/Abuja, for Follow The Money, Hamzat Lawal (English) +234-0-806-869-9956 or hamzy@followthemoneyng.org
In London, for Indigo Trust, Louise Vickers (English) +44 (0) 20 7410 7024 or Louise.Vickers@sfct.org.uk
