NIPC's Executive Secretary/CEO, Ms Yewande Sadiku, has advocated for increased gender lens investment in Nigeria. Speaking at the virtual third Annual Convening on Impact Investing, themed 'COVID-19 and Gender Lens Investing in Nigeria,' Ms Sadiku said NIPC's mandate can only be achieved if it is able to drive investment across all of Nigeria's 36 states and competitive sectors — with deliberate attention to who benefits from that investment.
She emphasised that attracting investment in a manner consistent with the Constitution means ensuring that wealth is not concentrated in the hands of a few. 'COVID-19 has brought to all a stark realisation — first and foremost, our obligation to one another. But it has also demonstrated that when things like this happen, the consequences are disproportionately borne by those who are most vulnerable and most disadvantaged. In these low-income households and informal sectors, we find a lot of women,' she said.
Ms Sadiku described gender lens investment as a deliberate attempt to rebalance what is 'undoubtedly an accident of history.' She noted that while Nigeria is approximately 50–50 male and female in population, wealth distribution is disproportionately skewed against women. She called on investors and policymakers to take a more intentional approach to directing capital towards women-led enterprises and underserved sectors of the economy.
The Chairman of the Impact Investors' Foundation (IIF), Afolabi Oladele, noted that 2020 has been a year of remarkable disruption, with COVID-19 driving a global rethink on gender and economic policy. He cited research showing that gender shapes the COVID-19 crisis in significant ways, from the vulnerability of front-line healthcare workers to the disproportionate economic impact on women in informal employment.
