The World Bank has approved $500 million for Nigeria to scale up the financing of its women empowerment programme
The bank said it okayed the facility because “Nigeria for Women Programme (NFWP)” has “helped to create economic opportunities for thousands of rural women through the Women Affinity Groups”.
It explained in a statement that the scale-up financing would further support the Federal government to invest in improving the livelihoods of women.
“The NFWP-SU will help to ensure better economic opportunities for women, which is essential for addressing gender inequality; guaranteeing better education, health, and nutrition outcomes for families; and building women’s and communities’ resilience to climate change,” the statement read in part.
The bank, however, stressed the need for the government to address issues that inhibit women’s economic empowerment and inclusiveness, low-carbon, and resilient economic growth.
It pointed out that women’s empowerment is essential to their ability to build resilience to climate change and, by extension, the resilience of their households and communities.
The bank’s Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, noted that the NFWP’s model helped to improve livelihood opportunities for women and enhanced their capacity to adapt to climate change.
Chaudhuri added that closing the gender gap in key economic sectors could yield gains of between $9.3 billion and $22.9 billion.
“We are optimistic that this scale-up will help Nigeria to move closer to bridging this gap”, he said.
Task Team Leader for Nigeria for Women Project, Michael Ilesanmi said that the “programme aims to mobilise poor and vulnerable women into different institutions”.
He added: “Through participation in Women Affinity Groups, project beneficiaries build social capital that can then be leveraged to access financial, political and economic capital–thus leading to both social and economic empowerment”.
NFWP, which has been implemented in six states, provides support to over 427,887 Women Affinity Groups members.
