People & Money

#EndSARS: Nigerian Corporations, Foreign Celebrities Donate to Movement

The ongoing #EndSARS protests, geared towards the abolishment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad arm of the Nigerian Police Force, have attracted the sympathetic attention of the people and companies from around the world.

This has in turn helped the campaign generate enough goodwill to access some level of funding from some powerful individuals and corporate bodies.

On Friday, the CEO of Flutterwave Inc., Olugbenga Agboola, took to Twitter to announce his company’s monetary show of solidarity for the campaign.

“So many of us are affected by this injustice, the Flutterwave staff have also been victims of brutality of SARS, so we started an internal fund, so we can help victims of SARS and support protesters,” he wrote in a tweet.

“We’ve raised 2 million naira so far, and the team decided to open it to the public. We are 100% against all forms of violence and brutality and we need to band together to put an end to this.”

He further encouraged others to donate to the fund to help settle hospital bills of those
wounded during the protests.

Also Read: Nigerians and America in the Age of George Floyd’s Rage

International entrepreneurial empowerment platform, Adam Start, publicly aligned with the movement on Saturday when its founder, Adam Bradford, launched an emergency fund to support activist groups combating the SARS force. Bradford kicked off the fund with a $10,000 pledge, inviting others to do the same.

Following an open call for donation made by podcaster and Twitter influencer, Feyikemi Abudu,
BudgIT Nigeria agreed to support the treatment of Joy Eze, who was wounded during one of
the #EndSARS protests, with a sum of N500,000.

Bundle Africa, an Africa-focused social payments app, also joined the fold on Saturday when it announced a N1 million donation to a new #EndSARS fund it created. It also opened three cryptocurrency wallets to inspire public commitment to funding the movement. An hour after the announcement was made on Twitter, the company’s CEO, Yele Bademosi, revealed that he was personally contributing N500,000 to the fund as a show of solidarity. The funding, according to him, is directed towards legitimate campaigns fronted by the Feminist Coalition and Flutterwave.

Scale My Hustle, a business-growth company, supported the cause with a donation of N1 million
on Saturday, commenting that “police brutality has no place in our society.”

Cryptocurrency companies, Quidax Africa, Busha Hub and Buy Coins, each donated N500,000.

In addition, Nigerian Afrofusion artist, Burna Boy announced on Saturday that he has created a
new anti-police brutality platform called Project Protect, an initiative meant to “provide financial,
medical and legal resources during and after #ENDSARS protests”. He encouraged Nigerians to
donate to the fund and also revealed that American billionaire rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs was
the first to make a pledge to the fund, though he did not disclose the amount.

Other international figures and celebrities who have supported the movement in other ways
include Naomi Campbell, Drake, John Boyega, Trey Songz, Big Sean, Wizkid, Davido and Cardi B.

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