76% of women didn’t get COVID-19 support in lockdown – Survey

The COVID-19 pandemic has further marginalised women and exposed them to many security challenges and domestic violence, a new survey has shown.

The national survey further indicated that COVID-19 “exacerbates pre-existing structural inequalities in income and decision making between men and women.”

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A book on the outcome of the survey on ‘Rapid Gender Analysis of the Impact of COVID-19 on Households in Nigeria’, was presented in Lagos on Monday by Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) with the support of ActionAid and UKAido.

According to the survey, 75.8 percent of women across the nine states selected did not receive any support from the government during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The selected states were Lagos, FCT, Kano, Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Borno, Osun, Ogun, Kwara and Kaduna with the questionnaire distributed randomly to selected households across the states.

At the presentation, the Founding Director of WARDC, Dr. (Mrs.) Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, stated that distribution of palliatives became an avenue for corrupt practices especially by officials of the states whom, she said, simply hijacked the process and diverted palliative materials to their cronies and family members.