A new public opinion poll conducted by NOIPolls in the week commencing July 22nd has revealed that the major challenge faced by women in Nigeria is financial empowerment. Considering the unacknowledged role most women play in the development and the need to ensure equal opportunities for the enhancement of sustainable human development, this poll also revealed several socio-economic challenges faced by women in Nigeria.
Based on poll interview conducted among women across the country, the results identified lack of financial empowerment (42 percent), poverty (35 percent), access to quality education (33 percent), gender inequality (19 percent), domestic violence (19 percent), sexual abuse (19 percent), cultural discrimination (19 percent), gender discrimination in employment (17 percent), religious discrimination (14 percent), physical abuse (13 percent) and rape (11 percent) as some of the challenges women face in Nigeria amongst other socio-economic challenges. Finally, the top three recommendations on addressing some of these situations include establishing vocational training programmes (40 percent), access to quality healthcare and healthcare professionals (39 percent) and access to soft loan facilities from the government (32 percent) amongst other suggestions.
The respondents were asked three specific questions. It is worth noting that when respondents were asked: do you think women face any socio-economic challenge in Nigeria? All the respondent answered yes to this question. Subsequently, respondents were asked to mention the socioeconomic issues they believe Nigerian women face and the result revealed that the top three socio-economic issues cited were lack of financial empowerment (42 percent), poverty (35 percent) and access to quality education (33 percent).
Analysis by geo-political zone indicates that women residing in the South-West zone accounted for the largest proportion of Nigerians who mentioned the lack of financial empowerment. This response may be influenced by women living in Lagos state considering that the State is the economic hub of Nigeria.
Also, while most of the women (42 percent) from the North-East believe poverty is the main challenge in the zone, a larger share of women from the North-West zone stated that lack of access to quality education is one of the toughest issue women in the region face.
A closer analysis on economic issues alone showed that lack of empowerment (42 percent), poverty (35 percent) and gender discrimination in employment (17 percent) were the top three economic challenges faced by women in Nigerian.
Similarly, analysis on the social issues revealed that lack of access to quality education (33 per cent), gender inequality, domestic violence, sexual abuse, and cultural discrimination (19 percent each) and religious discrimination (14 percent) amongst others were cited as top social issues women in Nigeria face.
Suggestions on how to resolve some of these socio-economic issues highlighted above showed that most women in Nigeria advocated for the establishment of vocational training programmes (40 percent), access to quality healthcare service and professional (39 percent) and access to soft loan facility from the government amongst other suggestions.
For instance, women who live in rural areas are often characterised by poverty, illiteracy, ignorance and lack of social and economic amenities hence, do not have access to credits facilities. This often contributes to women bearing a disproportionate burden of poverty in Nigeria therefore, it is extremely pertinent that the federal government encourage women and small enterprises through the provision of credit.
Analysis by geo-political zone revealed that women residing in the North-West zone (51 percent) had the highest percent of respondents who advocated for the establishment of vocational training programmes in Nigeria. Also, women in the South-East zone (62 percent) had the largest representation of respondent who suggested access to quality healthcare services and healthcare professionals while women in the South-West zone (55 percent) had a greater share of respondents who recommended that the government should provide soft loan facilities for women in the region to start-up businesses.
Further analysis of solutions to some economic issues showed that the top three recommendations include the establishment of vocational training programmes (40 percent), provision of soft loan by the government for women to start-up businesses (32 percent) and the provision of more employment opportunities for women by the government (17 percent).
Correspondently, analysis of solutions to some social issues showed that the top three suggestions include access to quality healthcare services (39 percent), parents should orientate their daughters (30 percent) and establishment of educative awareness program (24 percent).
In conclusion, the survey explored the opinion of Nigerian women on socio-economic issues they face as well as possible suggestions on how to mitigate these challenges. Hence, the analysis of results from the poll revealed a plethora of socio-economic challenges faced by an average Nigerian woman. The top five challenges affecting women in Nigeria were found to be: Lack of financial empowerment, Poverty, lack of access to quality education, gender
inequality and domestic violence.
Given these challenges they provided specific solutions to each challenge; on the issues of lack of financial empowerment, they suggested the establishment of a vocational training programme for women and the inclusion of women politics.
These challenges threaten the very existence of women, hinder their capabilities and distract them from pursuing sustainable human development. Therefore, concerted efforts are imperative to mainstream inherent relevant genders issues as mentioned by 19 percent of the respondents. The relevant organs of government should also establish a legal department to focus mainly on advocating legislation against social and legal practices against women in Nigeria. Finally, the government, international organizations, partnership agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)should synergize and create policies and various socio-economic empowerment programmes for women in Nigeria to remedy some of the challenges mentioned in this survey.
