IWD: Stakeholders urge inclusive policies to protect Nigerian women
Gender activists and stakeholders in Abuja have called on governments at all levels to take deliberate steps to ensure social protection for Nigerian women and guarantee them equal access to
Gender activists and stakeholders in Abuja have called on governments at all levels to take deliberate steps to ensure social protection for Nigerian women and guarantee them equal access to political and economic resources.
The call was made on Thursday during the 5th Transformative Gender Justice Conference organised by Christian Aid in collaboration with the Side-by-Side Movement and the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), alongside partners PLAN International Nigeria, Inclusive Friends, Yar’adua Foundation, ACT Alliance, and the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD).
Participants at the conference emphasised the need for inclusive and intentional policies that would promote justice, equity, and opportunities for women across the country.
Declaring the conference open, the pioneer Mandate Secretary of the Women Affairs Secretariat of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Dr. Adedayo Benjamins-Laniyi, stressed that achieving gender justice requires a critical review of Nigeria’s economic structures.
The conference, themed “Unlocking Women’s Economic Power: The Government’s Pathway to Gender-Responsive Financial Inclusion,” focused on strategies for expanding women’s participation in economic activities and strengthening financial inclusion.
Benjamins-Laniyi noted that sustainable gender justice depends on creating economic systems that enhance access to opportunities, empower women, and promote inclusive development.
According to her, redesigning the nation’s economic architecture to prioritise inclusivity is essential to unlocking women’s potential and ensuring equitable participation in national development.
She noted that women are economically active across the country but lamented that many of them "remain financially excluded; excluded from formal credit, excluded from asset ownership, excluded from scalable enterprise support, excluded from policy conversations that shape economic frameworks."
The gender activist called for a Women's Policy Framework that will move women’s issues from scattered interventions to coordinated, measurable, and accountable systems reform.
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This policy, according to her, "will not only be symbolic. It will be strategic, data-informed, and economically grounded. Adding that economic empowerment must be institutionalized, not improvised.
She then suggested that gender-responsive financial inclusion must address the credit gap faced by women-owned businesses, collateral barriers linked to land and asset ownership, digital access disparities, informal sector invisibility, and unpaid care burdens that limit their economic mobility
She argued further that financial inclusion is not only about opening accounts but about expanding agency, enabling ownership, and strengthening decision-making power.
"When a woman has access to finance, she negotiates differently. When she controls assets, she influences differently.
When she scales her enterprise, she transforms her household and her community.
Speaking on the sidelines of the conference, the founding Executive Director of the Centre for African Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), Dr. Otive Igbuzor, noted that when women participate in governance, there is increased acceleration of development. He lamented, however, that Nigeria is lagging in fully engaging the potential of women in politics and the economic space.
"Nigeria is faring very poorly in gender indices. For instance, the percentage of women in parliament is between 4 to 6%, which is one of the lowest in the world. We have other countries like Rwanda at 68%. There are countries in South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, and Senegal that are all more than 30%. So Nigeria, the sleeping giant, needs to wake up."
To this end, the human development expert said that for the country to experience accelerated development, deliberate efforts should be made to empower women politically and economically.
"My message to the citizens is that they should recognize that gender justice is not a favor done to women. To men is that men should be part of correcting the gender injustice against women. It's not a question of whether it is necessary. It is imperative.
For the Country Director, Plan International Nigeria, Dr. Charles Usie, government economic policies must be inclusive.
He said, "If we create a budget for financial distribution, for financial empowerment, we must understand that access is limited to women and girls. So government must be intentional in ensuring that women have equal access to financial resources and every form of protection by the government in such a way that women do not feel as if they are left behind."
In her submission, the Executive Director of the Centre for Transparency, Mrs. Faith Nwadishi, re-echoed the need for more women in governance, arguing that women should be at the table when serious issues are discussed, especially issues that concern women.
To actualize this, Nwadishi stressed the need for the implementation of the national gender policy.
According to her, "We have a national gender policy that is likely not implemented. So, if we implement the national gender policy, it will help to address a lot of the issues we're having.
