Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Wikimedia Nigeria Foundation Inc- Annual Activities 2024/Final Report
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Part 1: Understanding your work
[edit]Per the recent update on the Wikimedia Foundation Affiliates Strategy process, Wikimedia Affiliates that are General Support Fund grantees will fulfill their affiliate reporting requirements through their final or yearly grantee report.
If you are a Wikimedia Affiliate, you will use this form for your affiliate reporting and to address the affiliate health criteria. You do not need to submit a separate report to AffCom. Follow the guidance in the green boxes to report on how you met the corresponding affiliate health criteria.
If you are not a Wikimedia Affiliate, aligning your responses with the affiliate criteria is optional and not required.
1. Please share to what extent your programs, approaches, and strategies contributed to addressing the challenges you shared in your proposal. If they did not contribute as you believed they would, please share what obstacles you faced and what, if anything, you learned from them? (required)
For affiliates, use this space (Question 1.) to address Affiliate Health Criterion 1.1 (Goal delivery). Describe how you actively delivered on mission goals, e.g. content creation.
Our programs, approaches, and strategies contributed to addressing the challenges we shared in our proposal to a very large extent. These challenges are "lack of capacity to contribute to Wikimedia projects", "lack of sustainable partnerships" and "low contents from Nigeria".
- <big>Lack of capacity to contribute to Wikimedia projects</big>
The lack of capacity to contribute to Wikimedia projects were addressed with WikiBoost and Train the Trainers project.
- WikiBoost
In addressing the challenges of lack of capacity to contribute to Wikimedia projects, we designed the WikiBoost as a strategy to help existing and new community members build capacity to contribute to Wikimedia projects. The program was divided into two phases: one for existing editors with insufficient knowledge and the other for brand-new editors.
The new editors were recruited using the "Recruit readers as writers" model, successfully piloted by the Yoruba Wikimedians User Group. Over 900 participants registered for the training sessions, where they were taught the basics of Wikipedia editing. The WikiBoost has helped build a community of knowledgeable and dedicated editors committed to providing accurate and reliable information on Wikipedia and its sister projects.
The program ran for three months, with different experienced editors facilitating each session. A substantial number of the facilitators were respected and experinced members of the WikiProject Nigeria who understand how the English Wikipedia Community works. At the end of each training, assignments were given to participants to help them practice and apply what they had been taught during the sessions.
Certificates were issued to participants who completed the sessions. Feedbacks were collected participants and many of the participants who completed the survey recommended that the program should be sustained. This program hold immense significant for our community and we hope to have another cohort of the WikiBoost in 2025.
- WikiBoost Training Sessions
- Train the trainers
- <big>Lack of sustainable partnerships</big>
- Nigerian Tourisms Development Commission
The Wikimedia User Group Nigeria has a longstanding history of collaboration with the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC). In the past, our partnerships have collaborated on Wiki Loves Monuments, Wiki Loves Africa, Wiki Loves Earth, Wiki Indaba 2019 in Nigeria, and the inaugural WikiConference Nigeria in 2024.
After a brief hiatus in our partnership, we were able to reconnect with the NTDC in this year to organize the World Tourism Day 2025, celebrated on September 27, 2024, under the theme “Tourism and Peace.” Together, we organized a series of capacity-building sessions and edit-a-thons, encouraging contributions to Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and other Wikimedia projects.
More than 20 senior staff members from NTDC participated in training sessions. These sessions were facilitated by experienced Wikimedia User Group Nigeria members and covered:*Practical understanding of copyright laws and their application within Wikimedia projects.*image uploads and reusability within and beyond Wikimedia platforms.
A national article-writing contest was held from September 27 to October 11, 2024, which successfully engaged community members and newly trained editors. The contest resulted into the creation of over 300 Wikipedia articles across English, Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa language Wikipedias.
This collaboration renewed our connection with the NTDC and and we want to sustain the partnership with the organization. We are excited to renew our relationship with this organization in this round of grant.
- Ken Saro-Wiwa Foundation
While we wanted to reconnect with our hold partners, we also wanted to build new partnership. We gain new partnership with the Ken Saro-Wiwa Foundation. The Foundation was founded in 2009 with its mission to promote environmental sustainability by supporting a climate in which the management of natural resources, technological advancements, investment decisions and socio-economic development all work in harmony, fulfilling the needs and aspirations of the people of the Niger Delta and its environs.
On September 1, 2024, we organized a training session and edit-a-thon at the Ken Saro-Wiwa Foundation. The edit-a-thon aimed to improve the quality of Wikipedia articles related to environmental issues. The project also sought to celebrate the life of Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, an environmentalist who the Nigerian military government executed for his efforts to combat environmental damage in his community. More than 20 people participated in the training, and approximately 25 Wikipedia articles were improved by the participants.
Participants included Ken Saro-Wiwa Foundation staff members, environmental and climate change advocates, and open knowledge enthusiasts. Our primary objectives were to improve the quality of content relating to the environment, recruit new editors for Wikimedia projects, and build partnerships with mission-aligned organizations. These objectives were achieved and the participants' contributions were tracked with the Wikimedia outreach dashboard.
- Lagos State Government ( Ministry of Tourism and Culture)
The Wikimedia User Group Nigeria partnered with the Lagos State Government to implement the Wiki Re-Imagine Lagos Project, a groundbreaking initiative to digitally preserve the state's heritage sites, culture, festivals, and tourist attractions through Wikimedia projects and events. The project, designed as a six-month program, was launched with a webinar featuring notable speakers, including Toke Benson, Honourable Commissioner of the Lagos State Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture; Olusola Olaniyan, President of Wikimedia User Group Nigeria; Pelu Awofeso, an award-winning travel journalist; Okorie Uguru, Publisher of Africa Travel Herald and former PRO of the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN); and Mevin Iteghete, an information technologist. The session drew over 100 participants, including journalists, photographers, and members of the Wikimedia movement.
The project was divided into three main phases. The first focused on research on all sites and essential places in the state ( NEEDS ASSESSMENT) and engaging professional journalists and travel writers to create articles in mainstream newspapers, ensuring reliable sources for Wikipedia articles about Lagos heritage sites that lacked adequate documentation. Clear participation criteria were established for the article-writing contest, requiring participants to be affiliated with recognized media outlets such as newspapers, magazines, or established online publications. Over 50 Wikipedia articles were created on targeted heritage sites.
The second phase involved organizing photo-walks where professional photographers visited heritage sites to capture high-quality images. These images were subsequently uploaded to Wikimedia Commons and integrated into Wikipedia articles to enhance the visual documentation of Lagos' cultural landmarks.
The final phase focused on integrating the newly created content into a more accessible format. QR codes were generated for each heritage site, embedding links to the articles and related images. These QR codes were printed on plaques set to be installed at the respective sites. The Lagos State Government engaged a consultant to handle the QR coding, printing, and installation process, ensuring site visitors could easily access the digitized information.
The Wiki Re-Imagine Lagos Project successfully met its objectives by preserving and promoting Lagos' cultural heritage through Wikimedia platforms. This partnership has further strengthened the relationship between the Wikimedia User Group Nigeria and the Lagos State Government, paving the way for future collaboration.
- Collaborations with Wikimedia Affiliates
We collaborated with existing and new user groups in Nigeria to organise the Wiki Loves Monuments, Wiki Loves Earth, Wiki Loves Folklore, and Wiki Loves Africa. These User Groups include the Yoruba Wikimedians User Group, Hausa Wikimedians User Group, Igbo Wikimedians User Group, Tyap Wikimedians User Group. For example, a total of 2,209 images were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons during the Wiki Loves Monuments contest, with contributions from 187 uploaders. These high contributions positioned Nigeria as the top-performing country in Africa in terms of the number of images contributed and the fourth globally in terms of the number of contributors. We ranked 10th globally for the total number of images uploaded. We leverage on our collective efforts to amplify our impact and strengthen our community engagement.
We also collaborated with existing User Groups to organize the first WikiConference Nigeria. The primary aim of the conference was to unite Wikimedia communities across Nigeria and define effective strategies for collaboration to advance the Wikimedia movement in the country. Additionally, the event focused on capacity building, knowledge sharing, networking, skill acquisition, and celebrating the collective knowledge shared through Wikimedia projects over the years and the contributors who have been instrumental to their success. Awards were presented to exceptional contributors to Wikimedia projects in Nigeria and to at least one non-Wikimedia contributor.
Scholarships were awarded to 80 participants from 23 states across Nigeria. Initially, we planned to award scholarships to 70 participants, but this number was increased to 80. In total, 140 individuals, including partners, media representatives, and guests, participated in the conference. Of the 80 scholarships awarded, only 26 went to female participants.
- <big>Low contents from Nigeria</big>
The low contents from Nigeria is one of the challenges we aimed to address with this grant, which was addressed using the following strategies and approach.
- Campaigns
We organized several campaigns and collaborated with other established Wikimedia User Groups in Nigeria to implement the Wiki Loves X projects jointly. This collaborative approach significantly increased community contributions across various campaigns and contests, including Wiki Loves Monuments, Wiki Loves Earth, Wiki Loves Africa, and Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos. We also organized several online and in-person edit-a-thons.
These initiatives boosted participation and contributions and fostered unity and collaboration among Wikimedia User Groups in Nigeria. We leverage on our collective efforts to amplify our impact and strengthen community engagement. Detailed metrics can be found in the sections below.
- Staff support for micro-grants
This year, through our micro-grant programs, we funded numerous content creation and generation programs. Our networks and fan clubs independently organized events and activities that contributed significantly to generating content across various Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata. More details about this can be found in our micro-grants annual report.
- GLAM Projects
In this fiscal year, we sustained our audiovisual recordings of oral history projects, and 53 high-quality audiovisuals were created. This year, we visited Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, to document the rich culture of the various tribes in the state. These materials were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons and donated to academic institutions, including Adekunle Ajasin University. Some have also been used to illustrate relevant articles in various languages on Wikipedia.
2. Is there a plan to build on the key successes you had? If yes, please describe the plan and if no, please share the limitations to do so. For instance, did the activities lead to any new priorities, ideas for activities, or goals for the future? (required)
Yes, we have plans to build on our key successes while addressing the challenges we encountered. For example, during the implementation of the Wiki-Reimagine Lagos project in partnership with the Lagos State Government, we faced challenges that have informed new priorities and activities for 2025.
Initially, we organized an article-writing contest for journalists focused on Lagos heritage sites, with the goal of having these articles published in national newspapers. This idea was based on the understanding that many heritage sites lacked sufficient sources to establish their notability on Wikipedia. We believed that articles written by journalists would serve as credible references for creating Wikipedia content about these sites.
Unfortunately, the initiative did not yield the desired outcomes. Many journalists struggled to obtain adequate information to write about these sites. To better understand the challenges, we held a feedback session with some of the journalists who participated in the contest. Their feedback revealed that many of these heritage sites are under the direct control of individual families, making it difficult to access the information needed without substantial effort and resources, including monetary compensation, to encourage the families to share their stories.
This insight has inspired our community to take a more hands-on approach by working on this as an independent project. Drawing from our experience in documenting oral history, we plan to visit these sites ourselves to collect information directly from the families. We will then work with journalists to publish these stories.
Another valuable piece of feedback highlighted that, prior to the internet era, content about these heritage sites might have been created and preserved in print media, such as newspapers and magazines, which are now archived in institutions like the National Library and the National Archives. In response, we are exploring partnership opportunities with these institutions to make such historical knowledge freely available.
As part of this effort, we plan to launch a fellowship program to involve participants in digitizing, curating, and making this information accessible. This approach will help us overcome the challenges we faced and contribute to the preservation of Lagos' cultural heritage in innovative and impactful ways.
3. Please provide a link to reports that detail the activities that took place in the last year. This can include an annual report, Meta pages, and websites. If there are no links available, briefly describe the implemented activities and programs below or upload any files. (required)
For affiliates, use this space (Question 3.) to address Affiliate Health Criteria 2.1 (Affiliate health & resilience), 4.1 (Internal engagement), 4.2 (Community connection), and 4.3 (Partnerships and collaboration):
- Describe your activities engaging new users, new members for your decision-making body(ies), and developing leaders and organizers (2.1).
- Describe your activities creating or hosting spaces to encourage greater collaboration and engagement among your members (4.1).
- Describe how you engage with the contributing community that you serve and/or support (4.2).
- Describe your partnerships with other affiliates or with non-Wikimedia entities (4.3).
Here are links to reports that details the activities that took place in the last year.
4. Are you interested in sharing what you achieved or learned this year with the wider community through different peer learning programs (e.g. Let's Connect program, Diff)? (optional)
Yes, we are interested in sharing what we achieved or learned this year with the wider community through different peer learning programs such as Let's Connect program. We already shared via Wikimedia Diff.
5. Did you collect feedback from your community or target groups on how the activities implemented impacted them? If yes, please attach/provide information on the results (e.g. community surveys, stories, impact booklets/reports, interviews with partner institutions, etc). Did you collect other impact-specific data? (required)
For affiliates, the response to Question 5. also partially addresses Affiliate Health Criteria 4.1 (Internal Engagement), 4.2 (Community Connection), or 4.3 (Partnerships & collaboration), where applicable.
6. During the fund period, did your efforts do any of the following? (required):
For affiliates, the response to Question 6. also partially addresses Affiliate Health Criterion 2.2 (Diversity balance).
- 6.1 Bring in participants from the following groups: women, indigenous groups , people from lower socioeconomic status, young people, speakers of minority languages, underrepresented geographical regions (ESEAP, LATAM, SSA, MENA, SA)
- 6.2 Develop content about the following underrepresented topics or groups of people: women, speakers of minority languages, underrepresented geographical regions (ESEAP, LATAM, SSA, MENA, SA)
- 6.3 Support the retention of: Editors, Organizers, Partnerships, Wikimedians in Residence positions
7. What, if any, effective tactics or approaches can you share that worked well when dealing with the programs under points 6.1-6.3 that you selected? (optional)
Implementing projects and programs involving speakers of minority languages is often challenging due to language barriers. We anticipated this challenge during our oral history documentation project. Since the project focused on collecting oral histories from speakers of minority languages, many of them could not communicate in English or any other major language spoken in Nigeria.
To address this, we visited the villages ahead of our recordings with an interpreter who was fluent in English as well as most of the local languages spoken in these areas. She facilitated communication effectively, making the process much smoother. This approach significantly improved our workflow compared to previous experiences, where we spent several hours struggling to communicate due to language barriers. Ultimately, this strategy proved to be highly effective.
8. If you developed partnerships, which of the following factors most helped you to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors (optional):
Staff hired through the fund, Volunteers from our communities, Partners proactive interest
Part 2: Metrics
[edit]| Metrics name | Target | Result | Comments and tools used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of all participants | 2000 | 3700 | * https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/campaigns/wikimedia_nigeria_2024_fiscal_year_projects/programs
https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/campaigns/wugn_micro_grants_2024_networksfan_clubs/programs |
| Number of all editors | 2000 | 2482 | * https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/campaigns/wikimedia_nigeria_2024_fiscal_year_projects/programs
https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/campaigns/wugn_micro_grants_2024_networksfan_clubs/programs |
| Number of new editors | 1000 | 1500 | |
| Number of retained editors | 600 | 650 | |
| Number of all organizers | 100 | 300 | Excel sheets |
| Number of new organizers | 20 | 70 |
| Wikimedia project | Target - Number of created pages | Target - Number of improved pages | Result - Number of created pages | Result - Number of improved pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 1500 | 1000 | 34900 | 98400 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 4000 | 200 | 11600 | 500 |
| Wikidata | 5000 | 10000 | 4410 | 15600 |
| Wiktionary | ||||
| Wikisource | 200 | 100 | ||
| Wikimedia Incubator | ||||
| Translatewiki | ||||
| MediaWiki | ||||
| Wikiquote | ||||
| Wikivoyage | ||||
| Wikibooks | ||||
| Wikiversity | ||||
| Wikinews | ||||
| Wikispecies | ||||
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
11. Did you set other quantitative and qualitative targets for your project (other metrics)? (required): No
11.1. Other Metrics.
In your application, you outlined some other open metrics that you would like to measure. Please fill out the achieved results for each of the open metrics you defined.
| Other Metrics name | Metrics Description | Target | Result | Tools and comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Part 3: Skill Development / Capacity Building
[edit]12. Reflecting on your programmatic (external) and organizational (internal) work, did your grant support you to undergo any skill development that made a difference to your success? If yes, what skill was developed, and how did it lead to success? (e.g. received coaching on public speaking, attended training on nonviolent communication, hosted professional development conversations on leadership, learned and used a new tool for project management, etc.)? Can you share any materials? (required)
For affiliates, use this space (Question 12.) to address Affiliate Health Criteria 2.2 (Diversity balance) and 3.1 (Diverse, Skilled, and Accountable Leadership):
- Describe actions taken to prioritize gender balance in affiliate leadership, as well as any areas of diversity relevant to your affiliate's context (2.2).
- Describe the management, financial, or other leadership skills of your affiliate leaders. If you have a succession plan, please include it here (3.1).
- Describe any training or skill development (as outlined in the question above) (3.1).
- Incorporate into the annual report a disclosure of conflict of interests (if any) from the leadership (3.1).
No, we initially believed that WMF funding should be used exclusively for programs and activities directly related to Wikimedia projects. Now that we understand we can allocate a budget for skill development and training beyond Wikimedia-specific programs (such as Wikipedia training), we will dedicate resources to these types of capacity-building initiatives in 2025.
13. What is one capacity/skill area that you would like to focus on for the next year? And how do you plan to achieve this capacity? (required)
One key capacity area we want to focus on next year is editor retention. To achieve this, we will collect feedback from well-established Wikimedia chapters and user groups to understand their strategies for retaining editors. We will study their approaches, and identify best practices that can be adapted to our community. Additionally, we will engage with non-Wikimedia, volunteer-driven organizations to learn how they successfully retain their volunteers. Using insights from both Wikimedia and non-Wikimedia communities, we will develop a sustainable framework to improve editor retention within our community.
14. If you have additional information or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here. Use the space below to upload any additional documents that would be useful to understand your report.
For affiliates, also use this section (Question 14) to fulfill the Affiliate Health Criteria requirements.
- Describe and link to any public-facing documentation for affiliate governance, including affiliate leadership and membership with a breakdown of the demographics; how elections are conducted; how conflicts of interest are declared; and how decisions are made and communicated (2.2, 2.3, 3.1).
- Describe and link to any public-facing documentation for activities incorporating, promoting awareness about, or enforcing the Universal Code of Conduct in your affiliate's activities (3.3).
- Describe and link to any public-facing documentation for internal membership engagement, such as notes from your regular meetings and how you communicate to or involve your membership (4.1).
- See our [[Wikimedia_User_Group_Nigeria/Bylaws|bylaws]]
- We have a dedicated program called the Naija Office Hour, which we regularly use to raise awareness of and reinforce the Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC) within our community. Additionally, during our retreats, attended primarily by staff members, executive team members, and the leadership of our fan clubs and networks, we actively promote the UCoC and encourage these leaders to share and uphold its principles within their respective circles. Additionally, we have established a documented procedure for reporting and addressing complaints and grievances, to ensure that all concerns are handled transparently, fairly, and in alignment with the UCoC policy.
Part 4: Financial reporting
[edit]For affiliates, also use this section (Part 4: Financial reporting) to address Affiliate Health Criterion 3.2 (Financial & Legal Compliance).
| Description | Planned / received budget for this category (USD) | Amount spent (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| Personnel costs | 29711760 | 32200 |
| Operational costs | 10616049 | 8291 |
| Programmatic costs | 92061696 | 102142 |
| Total General Support Fund | 139000 | 135787796.86 |
| Other revenue | 40000000 | 40000000 |
| Remaining funds from General Support Fund | 1416004 |
15. Please state the total amount spent from this fund in your local currency. (required)
135787796.86 USD
16. Please provide an overview of the amount spent from this fund in the following budget categories in your local currency. (required)
- Operational costs: 8291 USD
- Programmatic costs: 32200 USD
- Staff and contractor costs: 102142 USD
17. Did you have any other revenue sources (e.g. other funding, membership contributions, donations)? (required): Yes
- 17.1. Provide the total amount received from other revenue sources in your local currency. (required): 40000000 USD
- 17.2. Provide the total amount spent from other revenue sources in your local currency. (required): 40000000 USD
18. Provide a financial report document which will provide the details of funds received and spent in the currency of your fund. (required)
- Upload Documents, Templates, and Files.
- Report funds received and spent, if template not used.
18.2. If you have not already done so in your financial spending report, provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal. (optional)
19. Do you have any unspent funds from this funding?: Yes
- 19.1. Please list the amount of unspent funds in your local currency. (required)
- 1416004
- 19.2. Explain why you did not use the amount. (required)
- We have judiciously utilized our approved grant for the year. However, an additional sum of $5,101 from the previous year was carried forward and added to the approved amount for the current year to support our projects. The plan was to use this carry-forward amount as a contingency fund to cover unforeseen expenses not accounted for in the approved grant. This fund has served as a financial buffer, allowing us to manage unplanned activities effectively.
- 19.3. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
- B. Propose to use them to partially or fully fund a new/future request with PO approval
- 19.4. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
- It will be added to the contingency item for the 2025 budget.
20. Final confirmations (required)
- 20.1. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement? You must be in compliance with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement. In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the Wikimedia Foundation mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.
- Yes
- 20.2. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
- Yes
- 20.3. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.
- Yes
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