80% of businesses owned by women lack access to formal credit — FG

•Gender gap in financial inclusion has widened — SEC

By Obas Esiedesa

The Federal Government has disclosed that over 80 per cent of women-owned businesses in Nigeria operate without access to formal credit, limiting their ability to scale and contribute optimally to economic growth.

The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, HajiyaImaanSulaiman-Ibrahim, made the disclosure on Monday in Abuja at the grand finale of the “Give-to-Gain” Summit to mark the 2026 International Women’s Month.

Sulaiman-Ibrahim said although women account for over 50 per cent of Nigeria’s population and contribute more than 40 per cent of the agricultural labour force, they remain largely excluded from access to finance, land, and structured economic opportunities.

According to her, most women-led enterprises are concentrated in the informal sector, underscoring the need for targeted interventions to expand access to credit and markets.

Also speaking at the event, the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Dr. Emomotimi Agama, represented by Executive Commissioner, Operations, Mr. Bola Ajomale, emphasised the need to integrate women more fully into Nigeria’s capital market as a pathway to building wealth and driving long-term economic growth.

He said while Nigerian women are highly active economically, owning about 41 per cent of micro-businesses and numbering an estimated 23 million entrepreneurs, they remain largely excluded from capital market instruments that enable wealth creation and business expansion.

According to him, the challenge is not whether women are economically active, but whether they are able to transition from earning income to building lasting wealth through asset ownership and investment.

“The capital market provides the bridge between income and wealth. It enables enterprises to raise growth capital and allows households to build assets over time”, he stressed.

Agama noted that although financial inclusion among women improved to 70 per cent in 2023, the gender gap has widened, indicating that progress for women is slower compared to the general population.

He further stressed the regional disparities, with higher levels of financial exclusion in northern Nigeria, particularly among women, farmers, and dependents.

Other initiatives include integrating gender considerations into sustainable finance frameworks, supporting women-led enterprises through targeted financial instruments, and strengthening investor protection to build confidence in the market.

Agama also called on listed companies, market operators, institutional investors, and policymakers to take deliberate steps to improve women’s representation and access to capital, noting that only about seven per cent of CEOs of listed Nigerian companies are women.

He stressed that achieving Nigeria’s ambition of a one-trillion-dollar economy would require the full participation of women, particularly through access to capital market opportunities.

“The full participation of Nigerian women in the capital market is not a social aspiration; it is the economic arithmetic of our national ambition,” he said.