By Mustapha Salisu
The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) says it has planted 616 trees across Northern Nigeria since launching its One Million Trees Campaign on September 2, 2026.
The organisation disclosed this on Wednesday during a media briefing on the progress of the campaign, noting that 345 of the planted trees have so far been verified as living, while the remaining trees are awaiting verification.
CITAD, through Sani Khamees, Senior Programme Officer (Research, ICT and Climate Change) CITAD, said the campaign was aimed at raising public awareness on tree planting, protecting and regenerating endangered indigenous trees, combating climate change and restoring degraded green areas across the region.
According to the organisation, it has intensified grassroots mobilisation and media sensitisation through partnerships with radio stations, including Premier Radio and Arewa Radio in Kano, Freedom Radio in Jigawa and Albarka Radio in Bauchi.
It said the campaign had also secured partnerships with relevant government agencies in Kano, Jigawa and Bauchi states to strengthen community mobilisation, access forestry networks and expand tree-planting activities.
CITAD said the Kano State Ministry of Water Resources, Environment and Climate Change had provided seedlings to support the campaign, while the Kano State Senior Secondary Schools Management Board and the State Science and Technical Schools Board were supporting its school tree-planting component.
The organisation also disclosed that it had established four seedling nurseries—two in Kano, one in Dutse, Jigawa State, and another in Jama’are, Bauchi State—to help meet the growing demand for indigenous tree seedlings.
It said the campaign had generated considerable public interest, with communities and individuals submitting numerous requests for seedlings.
To strengthen transparency and monitoring, CITAD has also launched the p1mt.ng platform, which allows planted trees to be uploaded, verified and recorded using GPS tracking.
The organisation, however, identified inadequate seedlings as its major challenge, saying requests from communities and individuals currently exceed available stocks.
It also noted instances where people uploaded photographs of already-grown trees or groups of seedlings as evidence of newly planted trees. Such submissions, it said, are rejected and are not counted in the campaign’s official figures.
Another challenge, according to CITAD, is the shortage of volunteers needed to verify reported trees and monitor their survival.
The organisation said 129 volunteers have registered, but the volunteer verification mechanism is yet to be fully activated, leaving many reported trees awaiting independent verification.
CITAD said it would intensify engagement with government ministries, local government nurseries, corporate organisations, development partners and individuals to increase seedling supplies and expand the campaign.
It also called on governments across Northern Nigeria to support the campaign through seedling donations, citizen mobilisation and the provision of protection materials for newly planted trees.
The organisation further appealed to philanthropists, individuals, commercial seedling producers, development partners and climate-focused organisations to support the initiative in order to accelerate efforts to re-green Northern Nigeria.