5th July, 2012
The statistics on gender inequality in Nigeria are alarming and women continue to be at a grave disadvantage.
According to a recent report by United Kingdom’s Department For International Development, DFID, Nigeria now ranks 118 of the gender inequality index and has one of the lowest rates of female entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The report says that Nigeria’s 80.2 million women and girls have significantly worse life chances than men and also their sisters in comparable societies.
With women making up only 21 percent of the non-agricultural paid labour force, at every educational level, women earn less than their male counterparts and in some cases, men with less education earn more than better educated female peers.
Shockingly, only 7.2 percent of women own the land they farm, which limits their access to credit and constrains entrepreneurship and business activity.
Worse, only 15 percent of women have a bank account and a gender bias in allocation of tax allowances means that women taxpayers are taxed disproportionately.
The situation is even gloomier in the northern part of Nigeria with over 80 percent of women unable to read, compared with 54 percent of men. In Jigawa State, over 80 of women and 42 percent of men are illiterate.
More than two-thirds of 15-19 year old girls in northern Nigeria are unable to read a sentence compared to less than 10 percent in the southern part of Nigeria. This is unacceptable if we must move forward.
As Miss Titilope Akosa, Executive Director, Centre For 21st Century Issues, rightly said, Nigeria needs to tackle systemic issues that continue to enthrench gender inequality, especially at the local level.
The government at all levels must ensure that girls are sent to school and properly educated. Same opportunities must be given to both men and women if Nigeria must be respected in the community of nations.