Poor data, low political will threaten women’s economic empowerment – BudgIt

File photo: BudgIT logo

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BudgIT has raised concerns that women’s economic empowerment is being held back by weak political commitment and significant gaps in data, despite years of legislation and advocacy.

The warning came during the unveiling of the State of Women’s Economic Empowerment in Nigeria report held in Abuja on Wednesday.

The Co-founder and Global Director of BudgIT, Oluseun Onigbinde, said the biggest challenge was not the absence of laws but a lack of commitment to implement them.

Onigbinde explained that although Nigeria has “been going through these motions of legislation” with the Child Rights Act and the VAPP Act in place, progress has been slow because “it’s a question of political will, ensuring that the people in the state of power have the political commitment to get some of these things done.”

He said influential people in government, “especially women”, need to help drive implementation.

He stated, “The First Lady, the Commissioner for Women Affairs, and other frontline leaders” have a role in making sure reforms happen.

The new report ranks states on women’s economic empowerment. Onigbinde said Lagos topped the table because it is “the most urban” and “the most progressive state in the country”.

However, he noted that seeing Bayelsa at the bottom means “they could do far, far much better.”

He described the publication as a “pilot report” that would be improved with wider consultations.

He said the primary aim was to start “a steady conversation” on the state of women’s economic empowerment, adding that the group wanted “governments, political leaders, civil society actors, media, and the corporate sector to support us in getting that done.”

BudgIT focused on areas such as women in agriculture, traditional labour and political leadership.

However, the group found a “wide data gap in the work we are collecting,” noting that, unlike its State of States reports, there was no existing data model to build from.

He said BudgIT now has to “invest in the primary collection” in partnership with the National Bureau of Statistics.

On cooperation from governments, he said attitudes varied. “We’ve seen people who are enthusiastic like Lagos and Kwara. We have seen people who are also not shown the interest as much as they should,” he said.

He explained that gender work was new for BudgIT but that after exploring it over the past year, “we have a data organisation, so we have a strong suit in doing this.”

A Gender and Research Analyst at BudgIT, Oludamilola Onemano, said the major research challenge was also data-related.

“A lot of data sets were not recent. We had data sets as far back as 2021, 2020,” Onemano said.

Some of the surveys used as benchmarks had not been updated, and the team needed uniform sources that all states could reference, including NBS surveys, DHS and statistics of women and men.

She said the next step would be closer collaboration with state governments. “Conducting surveys with the states, stakeholder engagements, and key informant interviews are the things that will help us to pivot,” she said, adding that with more time and funding, “we would ensure that the report is established in a better way.”

The Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen, represented by her Special Adviser on Technical Matters, Princess Jummai Idonije, praised BudgIT’s work and called for stronger collaboration with government institutions.

Tallen said the ministry was committed to partnering on women’s advancement. She advised BudgIT to ensure its work carried the necessary institutional stamps. She said partnership and collaboration were essential.

The BudgIT report contained an assessment, which ranked all 36 states across five pillars using a colour-coded scorecard and grouped results into four categories: Transforming, Progressing, Emerging and Lagging.

Seven states, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Delta, Ekiti, Kaduna, Kwara and Lagos, were classified as “Transforming”, with Lagos scoring the highest at 19 out of 24 and showing tangible efforts toward women’s economic empowerment.

Twenty-four states fell into the “Progressing” category, showing moderate progress but with gaps in agriculture and emerging industries, while five states were rated “Emerging”, reflecting uneven performance and low scores in emerging industries and agriculture.

No state fell into the “Lagging” category, although Adamawa and Zamfara recorded the lowest overall scores at 14.5, indicating room for improvement.

Across the pillars, Women in Emerging Industries recorded the weakest national performance, while the Traditional Labour Market pillar showed the strongest outcomes, highlighting the need for more targeted and gender-responsive programmes at state and national levels.

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