The African Development Bank (AfDB) has said it is presently seeking $42 billion to bridge the current financing gap hindering women-owned and women-led enterprises across the Africa continent.
The Director General, Nigerian Country Department of the bank, Dr Abdul Kamara made the disclosure on Tuesday in Abuja at the High-Level Dialogue on Investment in Gender Equality and Ending Violence Against Women for Rights and Development organised by United Nations Women in partnership with AfDB.
The event is part of the global “16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence” campaign, which runs from November 25 (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) to December 10th (Human Rights Day).
It brought together key stakeholders to address the pressing issue of gender-based violence in Nigeria, where women and girls continue to face various forms of discrimination and violence.
Kamara said the bank has a very clear stance on Gender Based Violence (GBV), stating that in 2024, AfDB celebrated 25 years of gender mainstreaming in all its operations geared towards evidence based reduction in gender gaps and more importantly, in accelerating gender equality.
He said: “One area where the bank has made very visible impact in the economic empowerment in the last seven years is increasing access to finance through a special initiative called AFAWA which is an acronym for Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa.
“In the context of this Pan African Initiative, the African Development Bank seeks to bridge the financing gap of $42 billion currently hindering women-owned and women-led enterprises across the continent and I am glad to report that we disbursed over a billion dollars of this across Africa, seeking to increase access to finance for women.
“This is just one among many initiatives of the bank that are responding directly to the problem gender equality. In Nigeria, all our programmes and projects are gender mapped and have gender experts working with the government to design actions that will bridge gender gaps, looking to access to financing for women, access to market, access skills but most importantly access to jobs and incomes.
“Just last month, we approve here in the bank, $100 million in the programme called Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank for Nigeria. This is a non deposit bank, it is an access to finance. This operation will improve gender responsive, youth entrepreneurship and enterprise development by boosting financial services to foster a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem and affirmative action for jobs focusing on women,” he said.
In his remarks, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Atiku Bagudu said GBV was a growing concern that required immediate attention and collective action, noting that despite progress made toward dealing with violence, women and girls continue to face violence, discrimination and marginalisation.
Bagudu, who was represented by Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr Vitalis Obi, said empowering women was crucial to breaking this cycle of violence and that can be done by creating and promoting gender responsive policies as well as practices.
He said: “We must take decisive action to prevent and protect our women from all forms of violence and to create a society where everyone feels safe irrespective of their gender. One of the ways by which we can bridge this persistent gap is by institutionalising gender responsive budgeting in all sectors of the economy.
“Gender responsive budgeting is the strategic approach that integrates gender perspectives into the entire budget cycle. Allocate adequate resources to the programmes that will address GBV, women empowerment and education,” he said.
On her part, the Chairperson, Nigerian Governors’ Spouses Forum, Prof. Olufolake Abdul-Razaq, said they remained steadfast in advocating gender responsive budgeting across the 36 states and FCT, spending institutional framework that integrate gender perspectives and championing initiatives to protect women rights.
The Kwara State First Lady said the forum was firmly committed to ensuring that all gender laws become a cornerstone of governance at the sub-national levels, adding that the well-being of women and girls remained a pivotal indicator of how well any nation was faring in driving her developmental plan.
“It is time to address the structural barriers that perpetuate inequality for women and girls to reach their full potentials. This is my belief and it is not only an act of justice but a strategic investment in resilience and productivity of our nation as this no doubt stands as a veritable gift to commemorate the 2024 16 days of activism against GBV.
“The Nigerian Governors Spouses Forum really made an effort in the last couple of years…We are also working to get women into leadership because we believe that when women are in leadership position they will help us to sustain this drive of bringing developments to women,” she added.
In her opening remarks, the UN Women Country Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Beatrice Eyong, said GBV was not just a human rights issue but also an economic issue statistics showed that the menace was costing the Nigerian government 1.5% of its Gross Domestic Product.
“We are talking in terms of billions of dollars that the country is losing every year because of Gender Based Violence. So Gender Based Violence is linked to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals. So if we do nothing, we will not get out of poverty and we will not get sustainable development.
“The World Economic Forum estimated in its global gender gaps report of 2022 that it will take about 132 years for the world to achieve gender equality. What does this mean for Nigeria? At this space, some of us, including our daughters might not experience gender equality in their time.
“This is therefore a call to collective actions by all international organisations, government agencies, community stakeholders and even the private sector to address the under-representation of women and barriers to gender equality,” she noted.
The UN Resident Coordinator in Nigeria Mohammed Fall, on his part said: “Gender inequality and violence against women remain among the greatest challenges to sustainable development, not just in Nigeria but globally. These issues incur heavy costs—socially, economically, and individually—limiting our collective potential for progress.”
He added that: “Violence and harmful practices against women and girls happen every day in Nigeria, and most of the time they are not reported. The Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey in 2018 found that 9 percent of women aged 15 to 49 had suffered sexual assault at least once in their lifetime and 31% had experienced physical violence. Restrictions and implications from the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the gender-based violence (GBV) in the nation.”
He said: “The United Nations remains steadfast in its support for Nigeria’s journey towards creating an inclusive society where every woman and girl can thrive. We are committed to coordinating partnerships, providing technical expertise, and facilitating dialogues to ensure measurable impacts in Nigeria.”
Michael Olugbode
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