By joshua 
Maigari’s London visit and the takeaways.
Photos
Picture 1: CIFF team visit to the Maigari’s Palace in Lokoja, earlier this year.
By Engr Mahmud Tanko Kassim.
Though on a private visit to the United Kingdom by our revered Emir and Amir, HRH ALHAJI IBRAHIM GAMBO KABIR, the Maigari of Lokoja, the Maikarfi (IV), who arranged a follow-up meeting with Mr. Miles Kempley, the Executive Director at CIFF, on the 28th/08/2025, facilitated by one of Lokoja’s illustrious sons Hon EL-SHETTIMA PETER AGBOGUN, the Kaigama of Lokoja, after the CIFF’s initial visit to the Maigari’s Palace in Lokoja earlier this year.
It was a very fruitful meeting between the Maigari’s team, which includes Hon. El-Shettima, Engr Mahmud Tanko Kassim and Hon Mrs. Nnasha Michael-Ihunde (the daughter of the late Marafa of Lokoja) and the CIFF team at their headquarters in London. The discussions were centred around the scale-up of their interventions on primary healthcare within Lokoja and Kogi State at large.
The high point of the meeting was Maigari’s ability to extract commitment from the CIFF team to locate more of the CIFF Interventions in Lokoja Primary Healthcare Centres from the 200 interventions they planned for Kogi State.
*CIFF Interventions:*
The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) through its philanthropic Intervention, have a sector-wide initiative in Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) to intervene in seven(7) states in Nigeria, with Kogi State being one of them. At the federal level, the interfacing agency is the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, NPHCDA, and the State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, SPHCDA. The CIFF’s main goal in Nigeria is the reduction of preventable maternal deaths through funding the Primary Healthcare family planning units.
*Takeaway from the Meeting:*
Four points were agreed upon from the meeting between the CIFF official and the Maigari’s team:
(1) CIFF will request that MSI and Kogi State SPHCDA share the list of 200 healthcare centres across Kogi State with the Maigari of Lokoja by highlighting the centres where intervention will take place.
(2) CIFF will request MSI and Kogi State SPHCDA to keep the Maigari team regularly updated on their programs, performance, and potential scale-up and additional Primary Health Care (PHC) interventions, and also to engage the Maigari in community-based services.
(3) CIFF will sign a potential MOU with Kogi State that will directly involve the traditional council in its activities and interventions.
(4) There will be a collaboration between CIFF and the Maigari’s team to advocate for increased budgetary funding by Kogi State government toward family planning commodities.
*About CIFF*
Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, CIFF is one of the world’s largest philanthropic foundations, focused on improving children’s lives globally. It was founded by Sir Chris Hohn and Jamie Cooper in 2002.
*Mission and Activities*
CIFF’s mission is to solve pressing problems facing vulnerable children, especially those living in poverty in developing countries