This month, the world is celebrating International Women’s Day under the theme: “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls.” It’s a call to ensure that every woman and girl, regardless of location, class, or circumstance, has access to their fundamental rights, receives justice when those rights are violated, and sees concrete action from governments to protect them.
But in Nigeria, the issues that uniquely burden women aren’t just being ignored; they’re getting worse. And we have the data to prove it.
When the Informal Sector Collapses, Women Fall First
A 2025 report by BudgIT revealed that women make up over 50% of Nigeria’s informal economy workers. The informal economy is an essential source of livelihood for many, and it provides job security for women who may not have opportunities to work in the formal sector.
These women are the market traders buying goods in bulk and reselling them, the farmers who are transporting livestock from farms to cities, the hairdressers, tailors, and small-scale entrepreneurs who keep Nigeria’s economy moving. But these women work in low-pay, unprotected roles with zero safety nets, such as pension plans and health insurance. So, when the economy crashes, they crash with it. And under Tinubu, the economy has crashed spectacularly.
When the President removed the fuel subsidy in May 2023, petrol prices jumped from ₦185 per litre to over ₦1,000.
The government launched initiatives like the Nigeria for Women Programme, promising to reach 25 million women through a digital app for finance and market access. But implementation has been slow and largely invisible while women’s businesses collapse in real time.
Gender-Based Violence Cases Are on The Rise
There’s a direct connection between economic collapse and violence against women. When poverty increases, Gender-Based Violence (GBV) increases with it.
In Akwa Ibom State alone, GBV cases increased by 25% due to the widespread economic difficulties created by the fuel subsidy removal. Women are being abused at higher rates. And they’re trapped because the same economic policies that fueled the violence have destroyed their ability to leave.
In September 2023 alone, 24,720 GBV cases were reported nationwide. From January to September 2025, there were 10,326 reported cases, affecting 30% of women aged 15-49.
The National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies states that femicide rates have surged 240% in early 2025 compared to the previous year.
Government spending on GBV response rose by a meagre amount from ₦311 per woman/girl in 2023 to ₦365 in 2024. That’s less than the cost of a basic meal. As of November 2025, Nigeria has 50 Sexual Assault Referral Centres across only 24 states, meaning more than a third of the country has none at all. The shelters that exist were built by NGO’s who surviving on donations and international funding, not the government. And the Minister herself has acknowledged the numbers are nowhere near enough.
The Healthcare System Is Killing Women
Nigeria has one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates. In 2023, the country accounted for over 29% of all maternal deaths worldwide. Women are dying from preventable complications during pregnancy and childbirth. This government has exacerbated the problem.
More than 4,000 women received free C-sections, and 1,000 primary health centres were revitalised during Tinubu’s first two years, with a focus on rural areas with healthcare shortages. Sounds good, right? Except the data tells a completely different story.
Market surveys conducted by The PUNCH in 2025 show that medicine prices have increased by between 30 per cent and 100 per cent in just 14 months. And here’s perhaps the most surprising stat: The family planning budget was slashed by 97% in 2025.
This means women have almost no access to contraception, reproductive health services, or family planning resources. In a country that already has one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates, the government decided reproductive healthcare wasn’t worth funding. It’s very telling.
The Gender Gap in Nigeria Refuses to Close
Women make up only 20% of Nigeria’s ICT workforce and 22% of engineering and tech graduates. This is a sector that contributes 18% to Nigeria’s GDP and represents the future of the economy, yet women are being systematically excluded.
A 2023 research published by ONE Campaign and the Centre for Global Development showed that only about 30% of 93 surveyed technology companies in Nigeria are owned by women, and more than one-third of these companies employed no women at all.
As is the case with other things we have discussed, this gender work gap is caused by poverty, cultural biases, and lack of access.
This digital divide that exists in Nigeria reinforces economic inequality. Without internet access or ICT tools, girls in rural areas are left behind in a rapidly digitising world.
In a 2025 interview with Vanguard Newspapers, Ufoma Emuophedaroa, who runs a 13-year-long advocacy campaign for girls in ICT, says that early exposure of girls to tech makes all the difference. So, why isn’t the government investing in this?
“One of the most frustrating issues for campaigners is the government’s little involvement. I once approached a federal agency to assist the program, but they requested that I pay for the minister’s lodging, meals, and flights. I was shocked. Isn’t this a government priority?” She asked.
In 2019, the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (2020–2030) was launched, and one of its implementation strategies was to ensure that the digital skills training programme incorporates women, but critics argue that implementation has been slow, especially in rural communities.
The economic collapse that destroyed women’s businesses and trapped them in violent homes is also closing off their daughters’ futures. Girls who might have studied computer science or engineering are dropping out to help at home, getting married early, or entering the same informal sector trap their mothers are stuck in.
Women’s participation in STEM in Nigeria has always been poor, and it hasn’t gotten better. In fact, under Tinubu, the gap is persistent, stubborn, and unmoving, and this can be tied directly to the economic pressures this administration has created. When you can’t afford the internet, you can’t learn to code. When you don’t have a smartphone, you can’t access online STEM resources. When your family is starving, going to school is the least of their worries. It’s an endless loop of suffering.
Tinubu, why did you lie?
Women have long been left out of Nigeria’s most important decision-making spaces, a problem that predates Tinubu and has been ongoing through administration after administration. Buhari’s eight years offered little improvement, with women consistently sidelined in appointments and policy. During his 2023 campaign, Bola Tinubu made a clear commitment in his Renewed Hope manifesto. He promised that 35% of all senior government positions would go to women. The APC women’s leader, Betta Edu, promised women they’d finally get “the right seat at the table.”
Photo credit: Vanguard Newspapers
Two years later, women are still waiting outside the door. Out of 48 ministers in Tinubu’s cabinet, only 8 are women. That’s 16.7% and nowhere close to 35%. Despite multiple cabinet reshuffles, that number hasn’t budged.
Photo Credit: National Assembly Library Trust Fund
When women are shut out of decision-making spaces, the issues that specifically and disproportionately affect them–maternal mortality, sexual violence, and menstrual health– fall off the agenda completely.
And if you needed more proof of how little this country values women’s voices, here’s what just happened in March 2026.
Kogi Central Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, was invited by the Ministry of Women Affairs to represent Nigeria at the 70th UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70), held March 9-19, 2026, in New York.
A March 5 letter confirmed Senate sponsorship for Akpoti-Uduaghan and Senator Adeniyi Adegbonmire (Ondo Central).
But the Nigerian Senate removed Akpoti-Uduaghan from the delegation, leaving just Adegbonmire, who is a male senator, to be in attendance at the conference. The Senate swears the omission was not malicious and was a result of “late submission” of documents, but Akpoti-Uduaghan has countered this.
This incident is not only suspicious, but it also mirrors the normalised disregard for female representation in the country. For context, Nigeria’s National Assembly has approximately 5% female representation—the lowest in Africa according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union. There are only four women in the 109-member Senate, down from eight in the previous assembly.
When you have 5% women in your legislature, when you promise 35% and deliver 17% in the cabinet, when you remove female senators from women’s rights conferences, you’re not just breaking promises, you’re denying their importance.
The denial doesn’t stop at representation; it also affects their funding. The Ministry of Women Affairs, the government body responsible for advancing women’s issues, received approximately 0.05% of the ₦28 trillion 2024 budget. That’s roughly ₦6.5 billion out of ₦28 trillion. For a ministry charged with addressing maternal mortality, GBV, economic exclusion, healthcare access, and every other issue we’ve discussed in this article, that amount hardly scratches the surface.
To top it off, Tinubu has continued to pay lip service to important legislation that could actually change things for women. The Special Seats for Women Bill, which would create 219 additional seats exclusively for women, has been stuck in committee since July 2024. The Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill, which would guarantee 35% affirmative action in appointments, has been stalled for years by “cultural concerns.” The promises are stacking up, and nothing gets passed.
You can’t fix what you can’t see. And when women aren’t in the room, their bodies, their safety, and their specific needs become invisible.
What’s the Way Forward?
In Nigeria, women’s businesses are being taken from them through policies that ignore how they actually work and earn. The rising cost of healthcare and cuts in reproductive health budgets undermine their health. Women’s voices are being taken away by systematic exclusion from political power. So what then should they celebrate??
The International Women’s Day theme demands three things: Rights. Justice. Action.
Here’s what each of these currently looks like
Rights: Women’s rights in Nigeria are not protected — they are negotiated, defunded, and discarded whenever they become inconvenient.
Justice: There is no justice in a system that knows the problem, names the problem, and then does nothing. Knowing is not accountability. Naming is not changing.
Action: The only action this government has mastered is the art of the announcement — bold promises, quiet reversals, and silence where policy should be.
Here’s what actual rights, justice, and action SHOULD look like:
- Real economic safety nets that acknowledge the 92% of women working in the informal sector. Low-interest loans and business recovery grants that help women rebuild what fuel prices destroyed. When women’s businesses thrive, the entire economy improves. Their success is Nigeria’s success.
- Comprehensive GBV response that goes beyond ₦365 per woman. Legal aid that’s accessible. Prosecutors who take cases seriously and courts that convict abusers. Laws that protect women, not just on paper but in practice. Because right now, women are being killed at record rates, and the government is spending less and less on their protection.
- Healthcare that women can actually access; it is not enough to preach and provide policies; the women for whom they’re created must be able to access them. Family planning budget should be restored, not slashed
- Funding scholarships for women in STEM, and the cultural biases that lock women out of careers in STEM.
- Political representation that actually reflects progress, actualisation of the reserved seats legislation, and adequate funding for the Women’s Affairs Ministry.
This women’s month, Nigerian women don’t need performative celebrations or presidential goodwill messages. They need their rights protected. They need justice when those rights are violated, and they need action that actually improves their lives.
Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls is a demand. And it’s HIGH time this government started delivering.
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