About Us

What we refer to today as the Nigerian Red Cross Society actually began as the British Red Cross.  In 1960, Nigeria’s parliament passed the Nigerian Red Cross Bill into law and before you could say, ‘‘Red o!’, the Nigerian Red Cross Society was born! The Nigerian Red Cross Society is Nigeria’s largest humanitarian organization with a volunteer strength of 800,000 spread across the 774 Local Government Areas of Nigeria.

The Nigerian Red Cross Act of 1960, CAP 324 states in Section 5 (1) that ‘the Society shall be recognized by the Government of the Federation as a Voluntary Aid Society, auxiliary to the public authorities’.
What this really means is that we are a creation of the Nigerian government and are legally required to help the public authorities in the area of humanitarian interventions. Our mandate is derived from the aforementioned Act of Parliament and the Geneva Conventions of which Nigeria is a state party.