Nigeria, on Tuesday in New York, reaffirmed its commitment to work with the international community to accelerate progress on gender equality and women empowerment.
Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, declared this while delivering Nigeria’s statement at the 70th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the UN headquarters.
Sulaiman-Ibrahim said advancing gender equality and women empowerment is a priority for President Bola Tinubu’s administration to ensure inclusive action, equitable justice, safeguard of rights and sustainable development.
She said in prioritizing this commitment and as part of the Renewed Hope Agenda, President Bola Tinubu has declared 2026 as Nigeria’s “Year of Families and Social Development”.
“This historic declaration reflects our firm belief that strengthening families is fundamental to empowering women, protecting children, and fostering cohesive communities,” she said.
“Under the leadership of our President, Nigeria’s social protection architecture has expanded significantly from under one million households in 2015 to almost 10 million in 2026”.
According to her, women constitute over 70 per cent of the primary beneficiarie of the social protection programme.
“This represents one of the most significant social protection expansions in Nigeria’s post-independence history,” she said adding, “it is also the foundation on which our government continues to build”.
Sulaiman-Ibrahim said the Nigerian Government is accelerating the delivery of its flag ship programme, the Renewed Hope Social Impact Interventions 774 (RHSI774).
“It is a collection of interventions that represent the largest locally driven investment for women’s empowerment in Nigeria’s history, cutting across livelihood support, clean energy, finance, digital inclusion and social protection.”
“Through our women digital harmony initiative, we are leveraging technology and innovation with one of the components being the Happy Woman App; a mobile platform that serves as a one stop shop that aggregates intervention and support for women.
“This initiative will enable access that connects over 20 million women to information, mentorship and economic opportunities, while strengthening networks of support and inclusion.”
The minister said Nigeria is deepening institutional responses to gender-based violence through a holistic safeguard mechanism that includes the National Electronic Dashboard to enhance real-time coordination, monitoring, and accountability.
“To mitigate emerging trends in Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence, we are actively scaling up prevention and survivor-support systems across the country.”
She also said Nigeria is expanding childcare, eldercare and social support services to empower women and strengthen families.
She said the National Gender Policy and the National Women’s Economic Empowerment Policy guide strategic action, while the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act 2015 and the Child Rights Act 2003 remain critical instruments for protecting women and children.
Sulaiman-Ibrahim also said Nigeria has seen a significant increase domestic budget allocations for women.
The minister, regretted that women’s political representation in Nigerian parliament remains low at below 10 per cent.
She, however, said the proposed “Reserved Special Seats Bill” represents a historic opportunity to enhance women’s participation in elective governance.
According to her, Nigeria has witnessed a significant emergence of women in appointive leadership positions across the public and private sectors.
“We are also promoting positive masculinity as a strategy for advancing gender equality and women empowerment for inclusive sustainable transformation.”
“The National Boy Child Policy developed alongside complementary frameworks is currently under validation, and we welcome deeper collaboration with global partners in this area.
Ministers at the CSW urged States to remove discriminatory laws and structural barriers so women can denounce crimes without fear and receive protection, support and redress.
The annual forum kicked off its 70th session on Monday, adopting an outcome document with a contentious recorded vote.
Tuesday’s priority theme was “Ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls, including by promoting inclusive and equitable legal systems, eliminating discriminatory laws, policies, and practices, and addressing structural barriers”.
Speakers stressed that access to justice begins with laws and procedures that “believe survivors” and protect them from revictimization.
Ministers highlighted consent-based standards for sexual violence, stronger victim and witness protections, and survivor-centred services.
