Women empowerment as catalyst for economic development 

 With Nigeria’s female population estimated at 83 million (about 49 percent of the country’s over 170 million people), the need for financial inclusion of women to boost development and employment opportunities is becoming increasingly urgent, especially at this period of economic recession.

No doubt, boosting women’s empowerment in the fast-changing world of work is as important as it is indispensable. This is because women constitute the most viable resource of a nation and remain important economic power-blocks waiting to be tapped in the quest for sustainable development.
Women are endowed with limitless acumen and vast entrepreneurial skills that should be deployed to diversify and catalyse economic growth. Nigeria’s current economic landscape reveals that women own less capital and productive resources than men.

BDSUNDAY checks show that woman access less than 12 percent of credit facility in the financial sector. As a matter of fact, among the total beneficiaries of the US$698 million fund created by government to ginger the growth of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in the country, only 5 percent out of the 60 percent beneficiaries are women.
Aisha Jummai Alhassan, Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, at a side event on ‘Financial Inclusion and Social Investment Interventions in Nigeria’, explained that the more disturbing fact is that in many African countries, including Nigeria, progress towards inclusive development has been evidently slow while the available drivers of inclusion are too limited to meet the needs of the poorest population, especially women.

“Therefore, if we are to accelerate transition towards more sustainable and equitable growth in line with the SDG Agenda 2030 objectives of leaving no one behind, it is critical to integrate women into national development and decision-making process, especially in the core economic sectors and the finance industry,” Alhassan said.
“In Nigeria, despite previous interventions, women still constitute a huge proportion of the population living in poverty. Women and girls face different forms of legal, social, cultural and economic challenges across the country. They still contend with stiff barriers, like double taxation, and are often locked out of economic opportunities which should empower them and help to build vibrant communities,” she said.

Alhassan noted that the overall aim of the President’s Social Investment Programme (SIP) is to enhance the equality of men and women, promote women’s empowerment and ensure that the human rights of women and girls are facilitated through a range of transformative, comprehensive and inclusive platforms.

Temitope Fadeyi, head, Financial Inclusion Secretariat, Central Bank of Nigeria, also revealed at the event that out of 39.5 percent of people that are financially excluded in Nigeria, 42 percent are female.
The Bank of Industry (BOI) has rolled out a women-focused micro-credit social intervention programme mainly for market women, artisans, enterprising youths and small scale farmers.

Toyin Adeniji, a representative from BOI, disclosed that out of 1.6 million beneficiaries, BOI aims to have up to 1 million women beneficiaries. In 2015, N140 billion was budgeted for the programme and the first phase of funding started towards the end of 2016.

Erelu Bisi Fayemi, former first lady of Ekiti State, said laws and policies that can enhance the status of women are critical in ensuring that the underlying factors that make women vulnerable to insecurity and violence and victims of harmful traditional practices like FGM are addressed.

“The tap in this context is patriarchal norms and values that are responsible for denying women of their fundamental human rights. What we need is a bottom-up and top-down approach. Bottom-up approach includes on-going awareness and sensitization of communities, working with governments at all levels, community leaders, traditional ruler, religious leaders and champions who can articulate these issues effectively,” Fayemi said.

“The top-down approach will include looking at the policy and legal framework that we have in place. We need to pass laws. I would like to call on all champions – political leaders, wives of governors, ministers’ wives – to take on the roles of being active champions in their communities,” she said.
Similarly, in a bid to bridge the gap and create financial inclusion for women in the country, the current Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development has come up with a lot of initiatives, some of which have recorded progress in the past few months.

The minister, Alhassan, said that at the national level Nigeria has scaled up its legislation on gender equality by pushing for the enactment of the ‘Gender and Equal Opportunity Bill’, the process of which has already passed through the 2nd reading at the National Assembly.

She noted that the bill, when finally passed into law, would enable women whose rights to decent work are infringed upon to seek legal redress and be adequately remedied.
In 2016, government launched the National Gender Policy to facilitate the attainment of Agenda 2030 of the SDGs. Its key objectives are to bridge gender gaps, explore and fully harness women’s human capital assets as a driver for national development through women’s economic empowerment.

“In our determination to put the issues of women on the top agenda and demonstrate commitment to the Beijing Declaration, several women are currently occupying top political and managerial positions in the country, notable of which is their visible presence in the federal cabinet and the replication of such across the 36 states of the federation,” the minister said.

In December 2016, the government through the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Corporation (NMRC) launched a housing loan scheme with the aim of affording opportunities for men and women to obtain housing loan at a single-digit interest rate.

Also, there is a provision of crèches nationwide by both public and private sector institutions in line with the global campaign to provide conducive environment for working women in their productive years.
The government has also embarked on rigorous action to regulate service delivery, institutional frameworks, systems and mechanisms for promoting gender-responsive programming that will fast-track the actualization of the socio-economic potentials of Nigeria’s 83.3 million female population for the attainment of SGD 8 target.

In collaboration with the ECOWAS Gender Development Centre (EGDC), rehabilitation and reintegration arrangement is in top gear for the repair and rehabilitation of VVF survivors in Kaduna, Bauchi, Akwa Ibom and Katsina States.
In the area of promoting economic empowerment of women and girls, the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), one of the Social Investment Programmes of the Federal Government aimed at providing micro-finance to rural communities nationwide, is being implemented by the Ministry of Women Affairs in collaboration with the Bank of Industry. Under the programme, soft loans are given to rural women entrepreneurs, market women, female artisans, farmers and women engaged in other small businesses.

To further expand women’s economic empowerment, initial approval has been granted for a $250 million World Bank project called Strengthening Women Economic Empowerment Programme (SWEEP) to boost government’s financial inclusion programme for grassroots women in Nigeria.

The African Development Bank, on its part, is setting aside the sum $5 million out of the $13 million Economic Growth Stimulation Project in Nigeria for women.
United Nations Women has also supported the ministry with the training of 600 women, who suffered various forms of violence as result of the insurgency in the North East, on skills and techniques needed to access loans from the National Women Empowerment Fund (NAWEF).

Also, in collaboration with ECOWAS and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the ministry is working on strategies for increasing women’s participation in politics with a view to creating entry points into political party structures and systems. A regional tour to build consensus on how to engage electoral monitoring bodies and political parties is in the pipeline.

In collaboration with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and UN Women, the ministry has undertaken humanitarian interventions in the North East through the provision of relief materials to IDP’s in Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, Gombe and Bauchi States.
The holistic rehabilitation and reintegration programme of the 24 recently released Chibok girls from the captivity of Boko Haram is being carried out in collaboration and with the support of UN Women and UNFPA.
 
 Ifeoma Okeke