Hamzat "Hamzy" Lawal

Hamzy’s first experience with activism came during his Boy Scout days. He remembers participating in monthly environmental cleanups in Abuja, knocking on doors to help educate his community on the importance of this initiative. Hamzy’s passion for the environment grew as he got older and after university he started working at a local NGO focused on energy and climate change. In 2012, Hamzy’s activism gained national recognition following his grassroots advocacy campaign to expose the government’s failure to respond to a lead poisoning incident in Zamfara, northern Nigeria that killed over 700 children. He led a successful advocacy campaign and ensured the government provided the $5.3 million needed to save 1,500 sick children in Bagega community.

Since then, 30-year-old Hamzy has established himself as an accomplished advocate, data analyst and media commentator who can bring national attention to social issues across Nigeria. In 2012, he founded Connected Development (CODE), an organisation that uses open data and technology to increase government accountability. Through Follow The Money, CODE’s signature initiative, Hamzy and his team train volunteer activists in Kenya, Cameroon, The Gambia, Malawi, Liberia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Ethiopia to use open data to monitor government spending on basic education, primary healthcare and access to WASH facilities and hold their governments accountable to their commitments. The Follow The Money network currently has 6,500 volunteers across eight African countries.

With his Malala Fund grant, Hamzy will use CODE’s Follow The Money model to train and launch citizen-led teams — composed of students, development workers and volunteers — to identify barriers to girls’ education in Adamawa state in northeastern Nigeria. Hamzy’s team will track the state government’s spending on education and encourage state officials to invest in gender-responsive school infrastructure.