A National Gender Analysis of Women’s Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment in Nigeria

Abstract

The purpose of the gender analysis is to assess the context-specific challenges to women’s economic empowerment in Nigeria, illuminate the structural, legal, cultural and psychological barriers, and identify cross-cutting priority reforms for women’s chambers of commerce and business associations. The study employed a mixed-methods approach to collect evidence from a range of sources, including a desk review of the global-development literature, key informant telephone interviews and reviews of quantitative data on gender trends and patterns in Nigeria from major statistical sources. The analysis is framed within an intersectional analytic framework to identify how aspects of women’s identity, such as religion, class, age, disability and other factors, intersect to compound their marginalization and privilege in the Nigerian entrepreneurial landscape.