Preserving yesterday,
inspiring tomorrow.
Nigeria has 250 ethnic nations, 500 languages, and thousands of years of knowledge about how people organize, trade, govern, and flourish. We are building the archive that captures all of it, innovating our heritage to drive future prosperity
"Nigeria's precolonial societies were not waiting to be developed. The esusu and ajo credit systems financed livelihoods long before any bank arrived."
Flagship research
What does it mean to flourish in Nigeria?
Every year, international indices rank Nigeria and tell its people how they are doing. They measure income and life expectancy. They do not capture communal wealth, cultural continuity, ecological health, or traditional safety nets. We are building a framework that does.
The Nigerian Prosperity Index
Measuring what has always mattered.
The Nigerian Prosperity Index starts from the values, priorities, and lived experience of Nigerian communities themselves. We combine community knowledge with rigorous research to produce a measure that is both academically credible and genuinely reflective of Nigerian life.
Current phase
We are in the research and community engagement phase. Updates, publications, and opportunities to participate will be published as the programme develops.
- Communal wealth and shared prosperity
- Ecological balance and environmental health
- Knowledge continuity and skills transmission
- Social cohesion and community bonds
- Disaster resilience and traditional risk capacity
- Cultural dignity and self-determination
"What is the value of an economy if the community is broken?"
Read MethodologyHeritage collections
Nigeria is not one story. It is hundreds.
Every tradition, every craft, every language, every practice of land and living that Nigerian communities have sustained carries within it a form of knowledge - not just cultural, but economic, ecological, and governance knowledge.
A safety net for the vulnerable.
Beyond research and documentation, IHC Foundation is committed to direct intervention in the lives of Nigerians who have suffered from systemic failures.
Our Crime Victim Support Initiative provides legal, medical, and psychological assistance to victims of violent crime - a recognition that a society's prosperity cannot be measured without accounting for how it protects and restores its most vulnerable members.
"A society's prosperity is ultimately measured by how it treats its most vulnerable."
Support This WorkPartners and documentation
Built with serious people.
IHC Foundation works with research institutions, universities, community organisations, and development bodies that understand what is at stake. Our documentation work is conducted in partnership with the communities whose knowledge it belongs to.
Research partner name
A brief description of the partnership and what it contributes to the Foundation's documentation and research work.
View partnershipOgbomoso Library
A community-centered archive and repository dedicated to preserving local history and cultural knowledge for future generations.
View partnershipOgbomoso Museum
A repository of cultural heritage and material history, dedicated to documenting and showcasing the traditions and innovations of the region.
View partnershipOur values
What guides the work
Rigour
Cultural documentation held to the same standards as any serious academic research.
Community ownership
The knowledge we document belongs to the communities that created it, not to us.
Dignity
We treat indigenous knowledge as sophisticated intellectual achievement, not curiosity.
Continuity
Documentation without transmission is not preservation. Knowledge must keep living.
Independence
A Nigerian framework of prosperity, built by Nigerians, on Nigerian terms.
Direct action
Research paired with tangible support for the communities we study.
Ecological respect
Cultural knowledge and the natural world it grew from rise or fall together.
Long time horizons
Archives, institutions, and indices built to outlast any single funding cycle.
Get involved
Join the movement to reclaim our foundation.
Whether you are a researcher, a community leader, or a donor who believes in an African-rooted model of prosperity, there is a place for you here.
Research partnerships
Universities, research institutions, and scholars can collaborate with us on the Nigerian Prosperity Index and cultural documentation projects.
Propose a partnership
Community collaboration
Communities and cultural custodians can work with us to document their own heritage, on their own terms, for their own archives.
Start a collaboration
Funding and support
Donors and foundations can support the documentation, research, and direct-action programmes that make this work possible.
Support the Foundation
Contact
Let's talk.
For research collaborations, media enquiries, partnership proposals, or general questions about our work, reach us directly.
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Email
hello@ihcfoundation.org -
Location
Working across all six geopolitical zones