Across Nigeria, women are powering the workforce, running small businesses, and filling senior government offices. But when it comes to the chambers where laws are made, they are almost completely absent.
This contradiction is the central finding of The State of Women’s Economic Empowerment in Nigeria (2025) report by BudgIT, which reveals that 33 of Nigeria’s 36 states are classified ‘red’ for women’s representation in State Houses of Assembly, meaning women hold little or no legislative power across most of the federation.
This gulf between economic progress and political exclusion raises a national question: How does a country empower women economically when it shuts them out of the rooms where economic laws are made?
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Progress in the workplace, absence in parliament
According to the report, the Traditional Labour Market pillar recorded some of the strongest performances nationwide, with states such as Abia, Akwa Ibom, Edo, Ekiti, Kwara, Lagos, Oyo and Rivers achieving ‘blue’ scores for formal employment inclusion, maternity protection and gender-sensitive labour policies.
At the executive level, women are increasingly visible. Abia, Edo, Kwara and Rivers were among eight states where women make up more than 35 percent of top executive decision-makers.
The report notes that “17 out of 24 Permanent Secretaries are female” in Abia, giving the state a 48 percent female dominance in its executive leadership. Yet the same state has “zero female elected lawmakers in its 24-member Assembly,” a sharp regression from the five women elected between 2011 and 2015.
Kwara State presents a similar executive success, also recording 48 percent female representation in its top decision-making offices, making it one of the best-performing states in appointed positions for women.
But these gains collapse almost entirely when it comes to elections. Only Kwara scored ‘blue’ for women in its State House of Assembly, Ekiti ranked ‘green,’ and Akwa Ibom remained ‘yellow.’ The remaining 33 states all fell into the ‘red’ category, signalling near-total political exclusion for women nationwide.
Zero women lawmakers across many states
Beyond Abia, multiple states recorded zero female representation in their legislatures, underscoring what the report describes as a “critical breakdown in women’s political representation.”
States such as Kano, Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara are grouped among those that remain at the very bottom of women’s political participation, despite showing activity in economic empowerment and social interventions.
This pattern exposes what analysts describe as a structural failure of Nigeria’s 35 percent Affirmative Action commitment in elected offices, which remains largely symbolic rather than operational at the state level.
One state stands out as evidence that progress is achievable. Ekiti State recorded the highest share of female judges in Nigeria at 83 percent across its courts, far above the national average.
The state also ranked ‘green’ for women in the legislature, making it one of only two states nationwide to break out of the red zone. Analysts say Ekiti’s performance shows that deliberate political leadership, judicial reforms and party openness can overcome entrenched gender barriers.
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Economic power without political voice
Nationally, women dominate informal employment. In 29 states, women make up over 50 percent of the informal workforce, while seven states fall between 40 percent–50 percent.
Yet, the report warns that economic participation does not translate into legislative authority, meaning women remain largely excluded from crafting the very laws that shape labour markets, credit systems and land rights.
In Abia alone, the report notes that women account for 52.02 percent of informal employment, yet remain completely absent from lawmaking.
The report links this imbalance to weak party commitment, poor candidate recruitment structures and the monetisation of politics, which disadvantage women at the primaries. While governors appoint women into visible executive roles, political parties remain the main gatekeepers of electoral power, and they continue to nominate mostly male candidates.
Despite widespread public-sector inclusion, the report concludes that “Nigerian subnationals still have a long way to go to improve women’s representation in politics.”
The unending advocate for reserved seats for women
For years, attempts by the National Assembly to pass legislation that would guarantee reserved seats for women in the legislative arm have stalled. The latest effort, the Reserved Seats for Women Bill, is currently before the federal parliament as a proposed constitutional amendment designed to expand women’s representation by creating additional seats exclusively for female lawmakers in the Senate, House of Representatives and the State Houses of Assemblies.
The bill seeks to introduce a temporary affirmative action framework to correct long-standing gender imbalance in Nigeria’s elected institutions.
Speaking at a recent press conference in Abuja, Chioma Onyenucheya-Uko, chairperson of the Abuja chapter of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), described the initiative as a necessary structural reform. “Reserved seats for women is not a gift; it is a corrective tool, a long-overdue restructuring, and an investment in national stability and inclusive governance,” she said.
At a separate advocacy event in the federal capital, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, alongside other gender rights advocates, warned that Nigeria’s democratic development remains incomplete without women’s full inclusion in decision-making spaces.
Urging lawmakers to fast-track the bill, the minister highlighted the scale of the disparity in representation. “Nigeria has more than 104 million women, yet only 21 women currently sit in the National Assembly,” she said.
“Four are in the Senate. Seventeen are in the House of Representatives. Only 48 of 991 state legislators are women. Thirteen state assemblies have no woman at all.”
