The World Bank’s Women, Business, and Law (WBL) 2020 index which measures the laws and regulations that affect women’s economic opportunity show that Nigeria scores 63.1 out of 100. This is lower than the sub-Saharan Africa regional average of 71 and the same score as the previous year.1 Nigeria’s performance varies across the several legal indicators including laws addressing the constraints to freedom of movement (50), women’s decision to work (75), women’s pay (50), women’s work after marriage (100), women’s work after having children (0), constraints on women starting and running a business (75), gender differences in property and inheritance (80), and affecting the size of a woman’s pension (75). Improvements in opportunities that accrue to women are underpinned by cultural and social shifts that close gender bias not only in the economy, but also in society and politics. To spur these shifts, the media and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) should promote gender equal narratives, while the private sector and government should redesign policies to create more and better opportunities for women.
March 16, 2021
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 9)
Related
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 47)
Recent
data by NBS indicates an increase in bank credit to private sector. Specifically,
private sector credit rose (year on year) by 24.4 percent to N16,185.1 billion
in 2016Q3 relative to 2016Q2, with Oil and gas, and Manufacturing
sectors taking the consecutive largest shares of the credit. The rise may be connected
to the need to improve credit availability to critical sectors in order to
hasten the recovery from the ongoing recession. The present rise in bank credit
to the manufacturing sector seems to be a step in the right direction as the
sector is critical to Nigerias industrialization and economic stability.