Nigeria faces $6.75 billion gender financing gap, stakeholders warn

Nigeria’s drive for inclusive economic growth is being constrained by a widening $6.75 billion financing gap that continues to shut women, youths and persons living with disabilities out of critical funding opportunities, stakeholders have warned.

The concern was raised on Thursday at the 4th Gender Impact Investment Summit held in Lagos, where investors, development finance institutions, policymakers and private sector players called for urgent reforms to strengthen gender-lens investing and inclusive financing across the country.

The summit, themed “From Commitments to Action: Strengthening Inclusive Gender-Lensed Investment for Nigeria’s Growth,” also featured the unveiling of the Inclusive Capital Scorecard: Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Baseline Survey by the Impact Investors Foundation.

What they are saying

Speaking during her welcome address, CEO of the Impact Investors Foundation (IIF), Etemore Glover, said the findings showed that women, youths and persons living with disabilities remain largely excluded from access to finance despite increasing conversations around inclusion and equitable growth.

• “We realised that if Nigeria must achieve inclusive growth, then access to finance for these categories must be addressed deliberately,” she said.

According to her, stakeholders had earlier committed to mobilising $8 billion in inclusive capital by 2035, but only $1.25 billion has been deployed so far, leaving a financing shortfall of $6.75 billion.

More insights

Findings from the report exposed significant structural gaps in Nigeria’s inclusion ecosystem.

Although 91% of surveyed organisations claimed alignment with Gender Equality and Social Inclusion objectives, only 41% had formal GESI policies in place, highlighting what stakeholders described as a disconnect between public commitments and actual implementation.

• The report also showed that women occupy just 22% of leadership positions across surveyed institutions, far below the 40% benchmark targeted by stakeholders.
• In addition, only 5% of current inclusion-focused interventions specifically target persons living with disabilities.
• The survey identified weak policy enforcement, limited accountability mechanisms and poor domestic capital mobilisation as some of the major barriers slowing inclusive investment growth in Nigeria.

According to the findings, only 12% of domestic capital pools have been aggregated into inclusive investment vehicles, while just two formal GESI policies have been adopted across institutions surveyed.

Gender inclusion as an economic strategy 

Also speaking, Vice Chair of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment, Ibukun Awosika, said gender inclusion should no longer be viewed merely as a social development issue but as a core economic strategy for national growth.

• “This is not just about the girl-child. This is about how we strategically invest in 50 per cent of our population to unlock growth for our economy and nation,” she said.

Awosika noted that women remain one of Nigeria’s most underutilised economic assets, warning that failure to deliberately expand access to finance and policy support for women would continue to limit national productivity and economic growth.

Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, attributed the slow pace of progress to weak political will and male-dominated policymaking structures.

• “In this country, I have never seen a political cycle where gender equality was treated as a core campaign issue,” he said.

Sanusi recalled reforms introduced during his tenure at the apex bank to improve female representation within the banking industry, noting that deliberate policy actions contributed to the emergence of more female bank CEOs in Nigeria.

• “These things do not happen by accident. They happen because policies were deliberately designed to create inclusion,” he stated.

The Emir also advocated constitutional reforms to improve women’s political representation, including reserving one senatorial seat in every state exclusively for female candidates on a rotational basis.

What you should know

The Impact Investors Foundation (IIF) had last year announced a bold plan to engage stakeholders and partners to raise $8 billion in gender-inclusive capital for Nigeria over the next decade, as part of its newly launched Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI) Roadmap 2025–2035.

The GESI Roadmap sets out ambitious milestones, including the $8 billion cumulative capital target, the creation of 40 inclusive financial products, $1.5 billion in mobilised domestic capital pools, 90% adoption of GESI principles among General Partners, and the enactment of 20 new policy and regulatory instruments.

Nigeria’s drive for inclusive economic growth is being constrained by a widening $6.75 billion financing gap that continues to shut women, youths and persons living with disabilities out of critical funding opportunities, stakeholders have warned.

The concern was raised on Thursday at the 4th Gender Impact Investment Summit held in Lagos, where investors, development finance institutions, policymakers and private sector players called for urgent reforms to strengthen gender-lens investing and inclusive financing across the country.

The summit, themed “From Commitments to Action: Strengthening Inclusive Gender-Lensed Investment for Nigeria’s Growth,” also featured the unveiling of the Inclusive Capital Scorecard: Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Baseline Survey by the Impact Investors Foundation.

What they are saying

Speaking during her welcome address, CEO of the Impact Investors Foundation (IIF), Etemore Glover, said the findings showed that women, youths and persons living with disabilities remain largely excluded from access to finance despite increasing conversations around inclusion and equitable growth.

• “We realised that if Nigeria must achieve inclusive growth, then access to finance for these categories must be addressed deliberately,” she said.

According to her, stakeholders had earlier committed to mobilising $8 billion in inclusive capital by 2035, but only $1.25 billion has been deployed so far, leaving a financing shortfall of $6.75 billion.

More insights

Findings from the report exposed significant structural gaps in Nigeria’s inclusion ecosystem.

Although 91% of surveyed organisations claimed alignment with Gender Equality and Social Inclusion objectives, only 41% had formal GESI policies in place, highlighting what stakeholders described as a disconnect between public commitments and actual implementation.

• The report also showed that women occupy just 22% of leadership positions across surveyed institutions, far below the 40% benchmark targeted by stakeholders.
• In addition, only 5% of current inclusion-focused interventions specifically target persons living with disabilities.
• The survey identified weak policy enforcement, limited accountability mechanisms and poor domestic capital mobilisation as some of the major barriers slowing inclusive investment growth in Nigeria.

According to the findings, only 12% of domestic capital pools have been aggregated into inclusive investment vehicles, while just two formal GESI policies have been adopted across institutions surveyed.

Gender inclusion as an economic strategy 

Also speaking, Vice Chair of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment, Ibukun Awosika, said gender inclusion should no longer be viewed merely as a social development issue but as a core economic strategy for national growth.

• “This is not just about the girl-child. This is about how we strategically invest in 50 per cent of our population to unlock growth for our economy and nation,” she said.

Awosika noted that women remain one of Nigeria’s most underutilised economic assets, warning that failure to deliberately expand access to finance and policy support for women would continue to limit national productivity and economic growth.

Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, attributed the slow pace of progress to weak political will and male-dominated policymaking structures.

• “In this country, I have never seen a political cycle where gender equality was treated as a core campaign issue,” he said.

Sanusi recalled reforms introduced during his tenure at the apex bank to improve female representation within the banking industry, noting that deliberate policy actions contributed to the emergence of more female bank CEOs in Nigeria.

• “These things do not happen by accident. They happen because policies were deliberately designed to create inclusion,” he stated.

The Emir also advocated constitutional reforms to improve women’s political representation, including reserving one senatorial seat in every state exclusively for female candidates on a rotational basis.

What you should know

The Impact Investors Foundation (IIF) had last year announced a bold plan to engage stakeholders and partners to raise $8 billion in gender-inclusive capital for Nigeria over the next decade, as part of its newly launched Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI) Roadmap 2025–2035.

The GESI Roadmap sets out ambitious milestones, including the $8 billion cumulative capital target, the creation of 40 inclusive financial products, $1.5 billion in mobilised domestic capital pools, 90% adoption of GESI principles among General Partners, and the enactment of 20 new policy and regulatory instruments.