Vice President commends MTN Foundation for leading private sector fight against adolescent drug abuse

The MTN Foundation, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the Office of the Vice President signed a Letter of Acceptance for Cooperation on the National Substance Use Survey in Nigeria on Wednesday, April 29, 2026. This letter formalised a tripartite partnership designed to generate the first nationally representative data on drug use among secondary school students in the country.

The agreement represents a strategic shift in the Foundation’s Anti-Substance Abuse Programme (ASAP), which has since 2019 sensitised more than 50,000 students and 1,400 teachers in 222 public schools across Nigeria. This comes as stakeholders acknowledge that existing national drug use data from the 2018 National Drug Use and Health Survey excluded in-school youth and is now outdated, even as drug use among Nigerians continues to escalate.

A report by the UNODC estimated that 14.4 per cent of Nigerians aged 15 to 64 had used a psychoactive substance in the preceding year, with cannabis the most widely consumed drug, and the prevalence was highest among the 25 to 39 age bracket, a trend that suggests early initiation during adolescence.

The Vice President, present at the signing, commended the initiative and singled out the MTN Foundation for its thought leadership in mobilising private sector resources against drug abuse. “We expect the findings to land as policy inputs, not as documents,” Shettima stated, adding that the Office of the Vice President’s role “is not ceremonial. We are in this for the outcome because the survey report will provide relevant authorities with granular local government data required to design and implement critical interventions.”

MTN Foundation Executive Director Odunayo Sanya said the survey builds directly on the programmatic foundations laid by ASAP and fills a critical evidence gap that has left prevention efforts reactive and under-targeted.

The survey will employ a comprehensive national methodology, and the output is expected to inform targeted prevention frameworks, guide community and school-based interventions, and support data-driven policy solutions. The MTN Foundation provides funding and leverages the partnership of UNODC for technical expertise, while the Office of the Vice President facilitates high-level government coordination and stakeholder alignment.

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Analysts say the agreement signals growing recognition that sustainable progress on youth substance abuse requires credible evidence rather than anecdotal assessments and that the private sector’s involvement through sustained corporate social investments can complement public and multilateral institutional capacities.

The survey is central to the MTN Anti-Substance Abuse Programme’s (ASAP) ultimate goal of contributing to the reduction of first-time substance abuse amongst Nigerian youths., Stating that without current representative data, even well-intentioned advocacy and intervention programs risk resource misallocation.