Female CEOs form coalition against gender disparities in economic opportunities

Female Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) have established a coalition to advance women’s economic empowerment in Lagos State in a move towards addressing gender disparity in economic opportunities.

The United Nations Women’s Country Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Beatrice Eyong, disclosed this on Tuesday in Lagos.

Eyong, represented by Women’s Economic Empowerment Specialist for UN Women, Chukwuemeka Onyimadu, said that the coalition’s primary objective was to enhance the implementation of economic policies that facilitate improved access for women to public and private procurement opportunities, as well as income-generating activities.

According to Eyong, women-owned businesses still struggle to secure procurement contracts, underscoring systemic gender inequalities within governmental and private sector procurement systems.

She noted that this disparity had prompted calls for policy reforms that could provide preferential treatment to marginalised groups, thereby levelling the playing field for women entrepreneurs and their male counterparts.

“To address the gender disparity in accessing economic opportunities in Nigeria, women CEOs and relevant stakeholders met in Lagos to form a coalition to advance women’s economic empowerment.

“The coalition has one goal: to make life better for women and girls by pushing for improved implementation of economic policies that will enhance women’s access to public and private procurement as well as income-generating opportunities.

“Nigeria has one of the highest numbers of female entrepreneurs in the world, yet women-owned businesses do not secure procurement contracts, suggesting systematic gender disparities in the procurement systems of both government and private sector organisations.

“The consensus on the positive correlation between gender equality and the socio-economic environment of a country calls for incentives to ensure equal opportunities for women entrepreneurs and their male counterparts, for instance, in the form of preferential treatment for marginalised groups when it comes to the procurement of goods and services.”

Also, the founder of Masterpiece Resort Development Centre for Women and Youth, Modupe Oyekunle, noted that better results would be achieved if women collaborated effectively.

“Our natural laws naturally force us to shift back, and most of the time, when you want to come back to that career, you will notice it is mostly blocked. There is a need for us to think it through to ensure that we achieve all this.

“If we all come together to achieve this, we can create more space for women and open a framework that can benefit all of us. We can tell the government to remove the barriers and ensure our women are benefiting from them, and within the first phase, we will ensure we will deliver all we need to achieve,” he stated.

In his remarks, the Director General of the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency, Fatai Onafowote, noted that the government must simultaneously develop the nation’s services and ensure that women are given equal consideration in decision-making.

Leading female CEOs and representatives of women’s associations, including Women in Successful Career; Women in Management; Business and Public Service; Association of Nigerian Women in Business Network; Academy for Women Entrepreneurs; African Women Entrepreneurs; Warri Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture and Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities.

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