Africa Index: Nigeria Ranks 4th In Africa In Workplace Gender Equality

Nigeria has been ranked 4th out of 54 African countries in workplace gender equality scoring 50, with a growth rate of 25 per cent between 2008 and 2017, Mo Ibrahim Foundation says.

Naija News understands that the 2018 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), who released the data in a live event on Monday revealed that its organisation covers ten years’ worth of data from 2008-2017 inclusive for 54 African countries.

We’ve just released the 2018 Ibrahim Index of African Governance #IIAG! Head to https://t.co/hZgdf0bvl0 now to access the key findings 🌍 pic.twitter.com/uBuxazC1Qs

— Mo Ibrahim Foundation (@Mo_IbrahimFdn) October 29, 2018

Speaking on the role of women in African economies, Mo Ibrahim, the foundation chair and Yvonne Mensah, Head of Africa, Governance at Commonwealth analysed the 2018 report.

Mr Ibrahim noted that women are a key part of African development and therefore, deserve more inclusion for the economic growth.

He said, “If you look at African women, they are the backbone of the economy. They do most of the agriculture, they help the kids, schools, housekeeping. “You begin to wonder what the men are doing in Africa,” Mr Ibrahim said.

Meanwhile, Ms Mensah stated that while there is improvement in women inclusion and participation in governance, more work has to be done to increase the growth pace.

She said, “This is one of the good news in Africa. The index shows that gender is improving and that’s absolutely what we see. “In Africa, when you look at political participation of women in parliament, on average, we are about 23 per cent of women making up the parliament in Africa. “Now, when you look at the detail, you have some of the best performing even in the commonwealth coming from Africa.

“I am glad that the index also looks at violence against women and girls. That’s very important because quite the work that we still need to do to get to SDG goal 5 which is 50-50. “We are still not at 30 per cent. We are doing well but there is still a lot to do to get to 50-50 by 2030. “Then we come to the nitty-gritty about violence against women which is such a big deal these days. Africa is doing well but there is no time for complacency,” Mensah said.

Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance:32 African countries BETTER-GOVERNED THAN NIGERIA.Rwanda overtook Mauritius to become the most business-friendly country on the continent,while Nigeria lagged behind at the 27th position. @DrJoeAbah @segalink @julietkego @HOBMakanju @CACCOT1 pic.twitter.com/LVE5uB0yF1

— Leading Nigeria's Conversation (@LNCtoday) October 30, 2018

NAN reports that from the index, Nigeria was shown to be rapidly improving its inclusion of more women in economic processes.

However, on overall implementation of gender inclusion policies, the country scored 53.6 with a growth rate of 7.2, ranking 31 out of 54 African countries.

This is marked as a slow improvement.

Meanwhile, Nigeria did not fare too well in other gender-based categories as although scores were high, growth rates were either too slow or not improved over the last ten years.

In women’s political representation, which is where the country recorded the lowest score, Nigeria scored 22.5, ranked 50 and had a negative growth rate of -12.4.

Also, in laws on violence against women, Nigeria scored 33.3 and ranked 29 with a growth rate of 8.3