Gender parity is not improving – NESG

The chairman of the National Economic Summit Group (NESG), Niyi Yusuf, has expressed concern over the lack of improvement in the huge gender gap in Nigeria.

Yusuf, who disclosed this during the 2022 Gender and Inclusion Summit in Abuja recently, said the global gender gap report shows that gender parity will take another 132 years to close. 

“According to World Economic Forum, in covering 63.9 percent of its gender gap, Nigeria (123rd) returns to higher and earlier levels of parity (2013, 2016) registered in the 16 years covered by the report.

“It also ascends 16 ranks on the overall index, with positive changes recorded on the economic and educational sub-indexes,” he said.

The report states that after 2021, equality for professional and technical workers declined from 1 to 0.628, parity in legislative, senior officials and managers level increased from 0.434 to 1 as women now make up majority in 2022. 

• Ochanya: Appeal court upholds lecturer’s wife’s conviction
• Yuletide: Passengers, stakeholders in a fix over skyrocketing int’l airfares

The report records improvements in higher levels in secondary and tertiary education levels of educational attainment, although both shares of men and women in secondary education in 2022 were lower than in 2021.

While speaking at the event, the senior program officer, Gender Equality Division of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Sybil Chidiac, said Nigeria was still unable to create the environment to unlock the full potentials of women and girls, despite being home to over 105 million women and girls.