The Presidency has said Nigeria’s ambition to build a one trillion dollar economy will remain out of reach unless women are able to participate more fully in finance, enterprise, employment and investment.
Vice President Kashim Shettima made the case at the second National Gender Inclusion Conference, where the Federal Government also unveiled four platforms intended to close gaps in women’s access to productive finance.
Shettima, represented by presidential adviser Aliyu Modibbo, said women’s economic inclusion should be treated as a growth strategy rather than charity.
Government figures presented at the conference showed that about 47 per cent of Nigerian women have formal financial accounts, compared with 58 per cent of men.
The Vice President said the difference represented millions of women whose businesses remained constrained by limited access to capital, markets and formal financial services.
He said government was moving from policy declarations toward a delivery framework intended to connect women and young people with skills, finance, markets and emerging sectors.
Among the initiatives highlighted was the Women in Energy Partnership with the World Bank, designed to expand women’s participation in the energy transition as entrepreneurs, professionals and investors.
Shettima also warned against relying only on national averages because aggregate numbers could conceal deeper exclusion in rural communities.
He called for stronger accountability, measurable targets and clear deadlines for programmes aimed at women.
Women Affairs and Social Development Minister Imaan Sulaiman Ibrahim said poor last mile delivery, unsuitable lending models, insecurity, unpaid care work and inadequate gender disaggregated data continued to limit women’s economic participation.
She disclosed that the Nigeria for Women Programme Scale Up had expanded its affinity group model to target 4.5 million women organised into about 300,000 groups.
Under an earlier phase, more than 560,000 women were mobilised into over 26,000 groups, saving more than N4.9 billion and accessing about N15.6 billion in livelihood grants.
Presidential technical adviser Nurudeen Zauro identified the four new delivery platforms as digital trust infrastructure, data for accountability, blended finance and the National Income Activation Initiative.
He said the challenge was no longer simply opening bank accounts for women but ensuring that formal access translated into affordable credit, stronger businesses and higher incomes.
The conference also highlighted the need for financial institutions, investors, fintech companies and state governments to treat women led enterprises as a commercially viable market.
Government said progress should be measured by expanded businesses, jobs created and household resilience rather than the number of people enrolled in programmes.
