Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

Despite making up an unprecedented 95.6 per cent of Nigeria’s labour force, Nigerian women remain critically underrepresented in leadership roles across the public and private sectors.

This glaring disparity has sparked renewed calls for urgent structural reforms in leadership pipelines.

Discussions on the subject matter took place at a high-level virtual media briefing hosted by policy advisory firm Gatefield, and attended by our correspondent yesterday.

Stakeholders from governance, finance, and civil society dissected new findings from the 2024-2025 McKinsey Women in the Workplace report.

The discussion highlighted Nigeria’s persistent gender leadership gap and its long-term implications for national development.

The participants noted that while more women are entering the formal workforce than ever before, only 33 per cent occupy entry-level roles in the private sector, with significantly fewer advancing into senior or executive positions.

“This is not about a lack of competence,” said Aishah Ahmad, Board Trustee at WIMBIZ and former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Ahmad said: “The data confirms what we’ve known all along: women are being filtered out by the system, not by their ability. We must stop admiring the problem and start dismantling it.”

The conversation underscored systemic barriers beyond corporate structures. Blessing Adesiyan, founder of Caring Africa and a leading care economist, spotlighted the often-invisible toll of unpaid care work.

“Care is economic infrastructure – just like roads or energy,” Adesiyan argued.

She said: “Until we address the burden of unpaid care, especially on women, we are only paying lip service to inclusive leadership.”

From the governance front, Hauwa Haliru, CEO of the Nigeria Governors’ Wives Forum Secretariat, noted that while women dominate essential service sectors like health and education, they are frequently excluded from policy and decision-making roles.

Haliru said: “We’re not here to fill quotas or play support roles. We are ready to lead. This is about recognising and deploying competence, not checking diversity boxes.”

The role of the media also came under scrutiny during the session. Itunu Hunga, Communications and Partnerships Lead at the Women in Leadership Advancement Network (WILAN), challenged journalists to adopt more nuanced and comprehensive storytelling.

Hunga said: “The media sets the tone for national conversations. We need stories that reflect the true contributions of women leaders and how they innovate, what they transform, and why it matters.”

The briefing also featured Nigeria-specific insights from the Reykjavík Index for Leadership, which measures perceptions of female leadership across sectors.

Experts encouraged data-driven storytelling as the country prepares for the 2027 general elections, stressing the importance of embedding equity into political and economic planning.

Speakers unanimously called for bold investments in gender-responsive policies, care infrastructure, and intentional leadership development strategies.

As Nigeria navigates the evolving landscape of work and governance, ensuring women’s full participation – not just in the labour force, but in its top echelons, remains a national imperative.

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