Abstract
This paper relies on doctrinal research method and secondary data to appraise the legal issues and challenges facing charitable trusts in Nigeria. Charitable trusts are created essentially to benefit the general public unlike private trust that is set up for benefit of specific individuals. Rules governing charitable trusts in Nigeria are provided in the case laws which recognize four heads of charitable trust. The institution of charitable trust has great potential to solve certain socio-economic problems in Nigeria. Unfortunately, the potential is yet to be unlocked even as charitable trust is unpopular in Nigeria for reasons revealed in this paper. The objective of this paper is to address the legal issues and challenges to the administration of charitable trust in Nigeria. This paper thus argues that there is no comprehensive legislation in Nigeria on definition of purposes that qualify as charitable trust, and also there is absence of a regulatory body akin to the Charities Commission in England to regulate administration of charitable trusts in Nigeria. Therefore, it is recommended that Federal government should enact a legislation that will regulate administration of charitable trusts in Nigeria, and establish a body to regulate the administration of charitable trusts in Nigeria.
Authors: Abubakar Mohammed Bokani
