Lagos, Nigeria – Having only spent a few days in Lagos, Nigeria, I can’t claim to be an expert on how deep or severe government corruption and efficiency is in this city or country. However, I’ve spoken to many people and asked about their views on all levels of government in their country, and I can say that a general sentiment is that NGOs and the private sector fill an important void by providing services that the government does not.

Private-sector participation in development has already been recognized widely as a global trend, but because of the special mix of hugely profitable private industry and corrupt government officials in Nigeria, the role of the private/NGO sector in providing basic services like water pipelines, roads, and schools is even more crucial to development here than it is in some other West African countries.

A couple of Nigerians told me that government officials sometimes require that private industries establish schools or other development projects as a condition for setting up shop in Nigeria. These kinds of requirements allow private industries to improve their image of corporate social responsibility, and they have the positive effect of improving efficiency and allowing infrastructure to be built more quickly. However, these requirements also allow the government to avoid fulfilling its responsibilities to the public, shifting them instead to the private/NGO sector.

The NGO we visited in Lagos, GFC grantee partner Friends of the Disabled, spends as much time creating brochures for and arranging visits with private companies in the country as it does petitioning the government for funds. Friends of the Disabled’s mission is to help the hearing impaired become self-reliant and accepted in society, and the director has been lobbying the government to include sign language curriculum in public schools. She has to walk a very thin line between negotiation and advocacy, as the future of her organization depends upon government approval.

My experience in Lagos has led me to believe that in countries that have less transparent governments, the ability of GFC’s grantee partners to leverage private funding is incredibly important, as this is likely to be the fastest means of helping them grow as organizations when the government is unresponsive.

Megan Kauffmann is GFC’s 2009 William Ascher Summer Fellow