The Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI), since its inception in 2023 by Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has emerged as a comprehensive national social investment platform, transforming lives across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
Designed to complement the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Initiative targets vulnerable populations; women, youth, persons with disabilities, elderly citizens, farmers, and underserved communities through coordinated interventions spanning economic empowerment, healthcare, agriculture, education, and social relief.
One of RHI’s flagship pillars is its Social Investment Programme, launched in March 2024 with the Food Outreach Scheme, delivering essential food supplies to persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups.
The scheme has since sustained monthly distributions aimed at easing household burdens and ensuring nutrition security.
Speaking during a distribution exercise in Lagos, the First Lady explained: “This Food Outreach Scheme under the Renewed Hope Initiative’s Social Investment Scope was launched in March 2024 to provide food items to Persons with Disabilities and other vulnerable groups in order to support their families.”
Enterprise Recapitalisation
Economic empowerment remains a core focus of the Initiative. Since launch, RHI has delivered targeted cash grants to women entrepreneurs and petty traders across multiple states. In Kwara State, 1,000 women petty traders each received ₦50,000 as enterprise recapitalisation grants, deployed through community partnerships to strengthen small businesses and household income generation.
The RHI/Tony Elumelu Foundation Women Empowerment Programme was launched to support 18,500 women nationwide with grants of ₦50,000 each. Clarifying the intent of the programme, Senator Tinubu noted: “This is not a loan. It is a grant and a seed of renewed hope.”
The Initiative has also prioritised dignity and social inclusion for elderly citizens and veterans. In Abuja, the First Lady in 2025, hosted the 3rd edition of the Renewed Hope Initiative Elderly Support Scheme, where 250 vulnerable veterans aged 65 and above recieved ₦200,000 each, alongside food items and medical checks, reaffirming her commitment to senior citizens.
Addressing beneficiaries, Senator Tinubu encouraged active ageing and community engagement, stating: “Our elderly have walked difficult paths so that younger generations may have smoother roads to travel. It is our moral duty and our joy to ensure that they live their twilight years in comfort, good health, and dignity.”
She further stressed that the Initiative is about “restoring dignity and ensuring that our elderly citizens find joy and fulfilment in their later years.” Under the programme, 250 elderly citizens in Ekiti State also received ₦200,000 each, alongside food items and medical support.
Persons with disabilities have received structured national support through RHI.
On December 3, 2025, to mark the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the Initiative launched a nationwide economic empowerment programme reaching 9,500 persons with disabilities across the 36 states, the Federal Capital Territory, and the Defence and Police Officers’ Wives Association.
Announcing the intervention, the First Lady stated: “Today, the Renewed Hope Initiative will provide… Business Recapitalization Grants to two hundred and fifty Persons with Disabilities in each State and the Federal Capital Territory… to support small business owners to recapitalize their existing businesses and strengthen their means of livelihood.”
Beyond cash transfers, RHI has invested in infrastructure and humanitarian relief. In Benue State, the government is flagging off the Yelewata Resettlement Project, supported by a ₦1 billion donation from the Renewed Hope Initiative to address displacement and community rebuilding.
In Niger State, Senator Tinubu paid a condolence visit following the Mokwa flood and other tragedies, announcing another ₦1 billion donation alongside relief materials. Describing the incident as “deeply tragic and unfortunate,” she assured affected families: “This donation is in line with our commitment to help families rebuild and recover. The task of healing is hard, but not impossible when done together.”
Healthcare interventions remain central to RHI’s mandate, mission statement with action, Senator Tinubu donated ₦1 billion for Tuberculosis diagnostic equipment and commissioned new TB machines in Dutsen Makaranta Primary Health Center Abuja, in August 2025.
The Initiative also donated ₦1 billion to the National Cancer Fund to support cervical cancer prevention and treatment, while advocating early testing and care. Emphasising the importance of health investment, the First Lady said: “A healthy nation is a wealthy nation.”
RHI has further partnered with the Nigeria Governors’ spouses Forum to intensify the national fight against cancer, particularly cervical cancer. The collaboration focuses on screening, HPV vaccination, and stigma reduction through community-based awareness campaigns across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones.
Under the 4CBYC Coalition, working with the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Nigerian Cancer Society, Bethel Viva Foundation, and Tenev Health, HPV vaccination drives and outreach activities have achieved a reported 90 per cent protection shield.
Lagos State adolescent programmes have also demonstrated the HPV vaccine’s 90 per cent protection against high-risk strains. Highlighting the value of community engagement, Dr. Juliet Iwelunmor of 4CBYC noted: “Survivor voices reduce stigma. Community outreach replaces fear with facts. Technology turns abstract health messages into relatable action.”
Maternal and child health has been strengthened through the nationwide distribution of professional kits to midwives. Under the programme, midwives in the South East received scrubs and crocshile the South West and South South had earlier benefitted professional kits, reflecting the region’s higher concentration of frontline facilities.
In a related programme, Senator Tinubu also extended the distribution of scrubs and crocs to midwives in North Central Nigeria, supporting the Federal Government’s retraining of 120,000 frontline health workers, with 54,346 already trained.
She stressed that “skill and compassion alone are not enough,” adding that healthcare professionals require “the right tools, infrastructure, and continued support” to save lives and improve maternal and infant health outcomes.
She acknowledged the support of an anonymous global donor committed to Nigeria’s health sector, whom she first met during the 2023 United Nations General Assembly for partnering on this.
Speaking at the South East flag-off in Enugu, in June 2025, Senator Tinubu reaffirmed: “No woman should die while bringing a child into the world,” .
Enugu State Governor Peter Mbah commended her efforts, describing her as “the Florence Nightingale of our time,” and told beneficiaries: “Your kits matter because you matter, and your work matters.”
Under the scrub and Crocs RHI provision Initiative, 60,000 branded scrubs and crocs was provided as incentives, with the six geopolitical zones receiving 10,000 scrubs and 10,000 crocs each.
On education and youth development, the First Lady hosted beneficiaries of the RHI/National Scholarship Programme at the State House, in September 2025, where 47 scholars received ₦1 million each and laptop computers.
The First Lady of Nigeria, further reaffirmed RHI’s commitment to inclusive education and social protection, by supporting girls who dropped out of school due to early pregnancy, abuse, domestic violence, or financial hardship not to abandon their life ambitions.
She commissioned and formally handover the Alternative High School for Girls in Oshogbo, Osun State, built in collaboration with the Universal Basic Education Commission under the ‘Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) Access to Education for All” Programme.
Addressing beneficiaries, she said: “Your past does not define you. This is another chance; another opportunity and you must embrace it with determination and focus. Just believe in yourself and know there is light at the end of the tunnel.”
Emphasising the broader policy value of education, the First Lady added: “Education empowers individuals to reach their full potential. It is not merely a privilege but a fundamental human right, regardless of gender or circumstance,” noting that “investing in women and girls education, is investing in the future of our nation.”
In October 2025, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, in collaboration with NITDA Nigeria, virtually commissioned and handed over Digital Learning Centres across 10 states, Abia, Delta, Edo, Kano, Katsina, Lagos, Nasarawa, Ondo, Yobe & Zamfara.
This reaffirmed the Renewed Hope Initiatives commitment to empowering young Nigerians through technology and digital education.
Also, through the Oluremi@65 Education Fund commemorating her 65th birthday in 2025, a total of ₦25,520,708,074.35 (Twenty Five Billion, Five Hundred and Twenty Million Seven Hundred and Eight Thousand, Seventy Four Naira Thirty Five kobo) was donated towards building the National Library.The education intervention aligns with RHI’s wider health and social protection agenda.
RHI has also introduced initiatives such as the “Flow With Confidence Campaign” to curb school absenteeism linked to menstrual health poverty, with the distribution ofcperiod poverty kits. Environmental Clubs to promote sustainability among students has also been introducedby RHI.
In partnership with UNICEF and other agencies, birth registration services have been accelerated nationwide, with UNICEF’s 2025 fourth-quarter report crediting RHI’s partnership for boosting birth registration among vulnerable children.
In another landmark national unity intervention, the First Lady unveiled the #OneNigeria UnityFabric, a national symbol promoting unity and cultural diversity.
The winning design by Miss Bamidele Mofiyinfoluwa, a 25-year-old University of Ibadan graduate, earned her a ₦25 million prize. In the bigger picture, the local mass production of the fabric is stimulating the textile industry and creating jobs.
To boost food sufficiency, RHI introduced the “Every Home a Garden” initiative, promoting local farming and healthy eating. Encouraging women nationwide to cultivate home gardens, Senator Tinubu observed that “people can now feed themselves and their neighbours.” In 2024, Mrs. Veronica Kidafa from Borno State emerged national winner, receiving a ₦25 million cash prize and national recognition.
Although a brainchild of Senator Oluremi Tinubu, the Renewed Hope Initiative operates within President Tinubu’s broader Renewed Hope Agenda, which prioritises inclusivity, digital access for persons with disabilities, and transformative development.
A former three-term Senator representing Lagos Central from 2011 to 2023, the First Lady has consistently championed women and youth empowerment.
As First Lady of Lagos State, she founded the New Era Foundation, and currently runs the Daughters of Zelophehad ministry and podcast, mentoring young women through spiritual guidance and counselling.
Through its multifaceted approach, combining direct cash support, infrastructure investment, skills development and healthcare access; the Renewed Hope Initiative has positioned itself as a national platform for inclusive development.
From professional kits for midwives to humanitarian relief for disaster-hit communities, Senator Oluremi Tinubu has maintained that compassionate leadership remains central to national progress, stressing that “the strength of a nation lies in its compassion.”