Nabila Aguele is leading the Malala Fund Nigeria in transforming access to education for marginalised girls through policy and funding.
Since July 2024, Nabila Aguele has been leading Malala Fund Nigeria as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), steering one of the most ambitious education-focused strategies in the country. A lawyer by training with a Juris Doctor from American University, an MBA from INSEAD (where she was valedictorian), and a B.Sc. in Human Biology from the University of Toronto, she brings over 20 years of experience in law, governance, and advocacy. Her work is focused on ensuring that Nigerian girls, especially in the most marginalised regions, can access 12 years of safe, quality education.
The Malala Fund is an international nonprofit organisation founded in 2013 by Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai and her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai. Its mission is to amplify girls’ voices and ensure every girl has access to twelve years of free, safe, quality education. The organisation is active in countries like Afghanistan, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tanzania, Turkey, and Syrian refugee camps – prioritising communities where girls face the most significant barriers to schooling.
Nabila’s strategic approach
With Nabila Aguele leading initiatives at Malala Fund Nigeria, they have rolled out a five-year global strategy (2025–2030) called “Strengthening Rights and Securing Resources for Girls’ Secondary Education”, backed by a $50 million investment, with Nigeria as a core focus country.
The Malala Fund Nigeria now plans to channel significant resources into six states – Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Kaduna, Kano, and Oyo – where the concentration of out-of-school girls is highest. These states are also burdened with issues like insecurity, poverty, and deeply entrenched cultural practices such as child marriage, which affects nearly 50% of girls in northern Nigeria. The strategy addresses these barriers through a mix of financial investment, policy influence, and community engagement.
Before Malala Fund, Aguele served as a Special Adviser to Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning. There, she played a key role in integrating gender into national budgeting, pushing for fiscal policies that directly supported women and girls. She helped design the Integrated National Financing Framework for Nigeria, aligning public finance with the Sustainable Development Goals. That experience now informs her push for increased public investment in education.
Through her advocacy, Malala Fund Nigeria has been pressuring the federal government to allocate at least 15% of its national budget to education, aligning with UNESCO’s global benchmark. While the national target has yet to be met, states like Kano have increased their 2025 budget allocation for education to 31%, and Oyo now stands at 21%.
Nabila Aguele is also focused on making budgets gender-responsive. She is working to ensure education funding increases in quantity and is specifically directed toward removing gender-based disparities. At the grassroots level, she has prioritised funding women-led local organisations that operate directly in affected communities. These partners are tasked with improving school access and retention, especially for married or pregnant adolescent girls who are pushed out of the system.
Her influence also extends beyond Nigeria. She sits on several international boards, like Girl Rising, Women for Women International, TalentX Africa and INSEAD. Today, her leadership at Malala Fund Nigeria is shaping national discourse, driving state-level reforms, and directly impacting how resources are mobilised for girls’ education.
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