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By Chinelo Obogo
BudgIT has released its State of Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) report which reveals how Nigeria’s 36 states are enabling women to thrive across five critical sectors: agriculture, entrepreneurship, labour markets, emerging industries, and education/skills acquisition.
The report presented on Monday by BudgIT’s Senior Gender Analyst, Damilola Onemano, identified Lagos, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Ekiti, Kaduna, Kwara, and Delta as top performers. Lagos State emerged as the overall best, scoring 19 out of 24 points. Lagos, Cross River and Kaduna are the three states that achieved green scores in emerging industries, showing significant strides in enabling women’s participation in ICT, the green economy, creative industries, and digital entrepreneurship.
In the formal labour sector, Lagos stood out as one of only three states offering official paternity leave, alongside Akwa Ibom and Enugu. The state also leads in female teacher representation at 71%, second only to Abia’s 78%.
In the agriculture pillar, Cross River State recorded the highest score of 3.5 out of 4 points, placing it among green performers. The state also ranks high in women’s ownership of land, recording ownership rates above 10% but less than 15%, a significant achievement given that land ownership by women remains particularly low nationwide despite legal frameworks like the Land Use Act (1978). Taraba State was the only state to attain the blue aspirational target in agriculture, showing commitment to integrating women into the agricultural value chain. Other strong performers in this pillar include Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Ebonyi, and Yobe.
Women in emerging industries recorded the weakest performance nationally, with no state earning a blue score. Only Cross River, Kaduna, and Lagos achieved green scores, while most states remain in red and yellow zones. Just nine states recorded specific budget lines for creative arts, entertainment, and culture for women, and only four states, Lagos, Gombe, Ebonyi, and Cross River, had specific funding for women to access STEM education or training.
In the agriculture sector, Benue State recorded the highest proportion of women in the informal agricultural sector at 87.91%, Lagos had the lowest at just 0.23%, reflecting the state’s more diversified economy. The traditional labour market pillar recorded the strongest overall performance nationally, with eight states, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Edo, Ekiti, Kwara, Lagos, Oyo, and Rivers achieving blue scores. These states demonstrated progressive inclusion of women in formal employment, strong maternity protections, and gender-sensitive labour policies.
In terms of political representation in the executive arm of government, Abia, Edo, Kwara, and Rivers are among eight states that performed in the blue category, with women comprising above 35% of decision-making positions. However, political representation in state legislatures remains a challenge, with only Kwara scoring as a blue state and Ekiti in the green category. Ekiti State recorded the highest percentage of female judges at 83% across the state’s courts of appeal, magistrates courts, and customary courts, while Kaduna State is the only state currently running a hybrid work model, with state workers working remotely on Fridays.
In entrepreneurship, Lagos, Imo, Jigawa, Benue, and Ekiti achieved green ratings, reflecting commendable efforts to support women through business development programs and access to finance. A strong majority of states scored maximum points on the existence of interventions supporting women entrepreneurs, with 31 states recording specific budget line items in their 2024 budgets addressing access to inputs, capital, training, and capacity building. However, a consistent challenge across all states is the low reach of the CBN Entrepreneurship Development Programme, with states scoring only 0.25 out of 1.00 on this indicator, suggesting that program benefits have not significantly reached self-employed women.
In education and skills acquisition, Adamawa, Kaduna, and Kogi led with top scores of 4.00, followed closely by Ekiti and Kwara with 3.75. Eighteen states are currently running the AGILE program, with four having specific budget allocations. Female teacher representation averaged 50% nationally, with Abia leading at 78%, followed by Lagos at 71%, and Osun at 70%.
