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THE ROLE OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND ITS IMPACT ON THE ECONOMIC GROWTH OF NIGERIA

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Empowering Women to Achieve their Full Potential

Abstract

The study was carried out to examine the role of women empowerment and its impact on the economic growth of Nigeria. The study aims at determining the extent to which Nigeria has played her part in the realization of the third goal of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Which is to promote gender equality and to empower women. To achieve the objective of this study, four (4) research question and hypotheses were raised to guide the study. The researcher adopted survey research design and a sample size of (120) one hundred and twenty respondents was used. The study was carried out by administering questionnaires and interviewing selected women in Uyo Local Government Area. It was revealed that; There are significant the impact of women empowerment on economic development of Nigeria. There are available government empowerment programmes for both urban and rural women in Nigeria. It was concluded that education is one of the values which helped to restructure the women’s roles and values in Nigeria. Due to the liberating effects of education on the human mind, many Nigerian women who have attained certain levels in education began to liberate themselves out of the boredom and limitations of the home. Some recommendations were made to tackle the challenges discovered in the study.

 

                                              CHAPTER ONE

                                            INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

There is an existing perception about women, not just in Nigeria, but in other African countries and the world at large. This perception of women as the weak and the less valued gender deprived women socially, economically and politically in relation to their male counterparts. From the colonial era in Nigeria women have been a marginalized group, subjected to face a lot of challenges and barriers as the marginalized group. The discriminatory practice in education which favored the male over the female was very unprogressive yet the government could not do anything to either stop or reverse it (Kema, 2013). In most African traditional societies, experience shows that women have been abused, marginalized, discriminated against and denied their rights in most spheres of human endeavours. The situation is worse for the rural women who have low literacy level and, consequently, have become mere tools in the hands of their husbands (Ebirim, 2014).

Nigeria is one of the most populated countries in Africa and women constitute about half of the national population of Nigeria (Gender Training and Development Network, 2010). Globally, women are more than half of the world’s population and they are saddled with a lot of responsibilities in the family and the society at large yet are systematically denied the resources, information and freedom of action they need to fulfill these responsibilities. Two-third (2/3) of the world’s illiterates are females, also of the millions of school age children not in school, the majority are girls (Abiola, 2005). The United Nations held an event called the Millennium Summit in the year 2000. Its 189 member states made a pledge in the Millennium Declaration to achieve eight goals. They were referred to as the Millennium Development Goals. One of those eight goals “Goal 3”, was to promote gender equality and to empower women. That goal in itself would be beneficial to national infrastructure and growth (United Nations, 2015).

Empowerment is simply the ability to take effective control of oneself or one’s life in terms of being well informed and equipped with education, finance, and other relevant skills. It is also the ability to take decisions and to act on such decisions without any external hindrances (Urom, 2002). Okpoko (2002) stated that empowerment is a term which has its root in power. He maintained that to empower means to give power or authority to enable a person to take decision by himself. Empowerment implies that the person being empowered has hitherto lacked power or authority, either by default or denial. In the context of this study, empowerment can be defined as the ability to take decision and act on it without hindrance due to the support gained by an individual. Empowerment can either be individuals or collective, it becomes collective if the enablement affects a group as a whole, for example the women folk.

Women empowerment is the process of investing in women; a concept which combines human welfare with human capital approach at the beginning of the economic development process, which encompasses nutrition, health and education (Aleke, 2013). Women empowerment involves making women active to have fair and appropriate access to control of resources and equity to be aware of their ability to participate fully in decision-making (Ugwu, 2008). According to the author, women all over the world have reached the stage where they would be recognized in all spheres of life. In the context of this work, women empowerment can be perceived as a situation where by women are given all the necessary opportunities and enablement to participate actively in matters that affect women and involve in making decision relevant for women’s survival and existence.

READ ALSO: WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION OF RURAL WOMEN

The economic down turn in the country’s economy has impoverished Nigeria and placed it as one of the poorest countries despite her enormous natural and human resources of which women are involved. The Nigerian women typically bear the brunt of poverty in the country, most of whom are complete house wife left for cooking, taking care of husband, children and managing the domestic affairs with little or nothing their husbands usually keep for them. In most of the countries in West African sub-region, women participate in agricultural production more than men. In Nigeria in particular most especially in south- east, south-south and western region, agricultural production and development is purely in the hands of women and girls. The women farmer undoubtedly, remain the key actors in food production in sub-Sahara Africa, a force to be reckoned to end hunger, unemployment and poverty in Nigeria, in Nigeria, it is very clear that women are actively involved in production ,processing and marketing of agricultural products. Yet in farming and marketing, decision or policy making, access to loans, farm inputs, loan and other agricultural incentives, they are less considered or favoured. This governmental attitudes shows that women are not always empowered for greater productivity in agriculture. Therefore, empowering the women will not only help to improve their social and family welfare, but will go a long way to arrest hunger and poverty, eradicate disease and stimulate them into sustainable economic growth for the entire nation (Iheduru, 2012, p. 48).

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Women are particularly affected by the economic crisis that is being experienced in Nigeria today both in urban and rural areas. The high unemployment rate and poverty have created a circle that puts the burden of bread winning for the entire family more heavily on women than ever before. This means that women have to do extra work to help their families. Although, there have been series of empowerment programmes by Nigerian past government in an attempt to empower women, eradicate poverty and improve economic growth. From the General Yakubu Gowon regime, to that of General Olusegun Obasanjo and the present led President Mohamed Buhari’s administration. The aims of all the previous empowerment programmes were to reduce the suffering of the women by empowering them and providing employment opportunities and access to credit facilities such as long and short term loans. Unfortunately, most of these empowerment programmes suffered the same fate as a recent government assessment showed that they all failed due to the fact that, they are characterized by corruption on the part of some government official and public servants (Igbuzor, 2015). In Akwa Ibom State today, majority of women are still struggling to access government empowerment to improve their standard of living and means of livelihood for their families. The suffering of these women sometimes affects their female children as well. This is because in the rural areas, most of the households are characterized by polygamous families with many children, and these rural women are often burdened with the responsibilities of catering for the needs of the family which otherwise cannot be solved by them alone and rather cause large scores of their girl children dropping out of school and engaging in early or forced marriage (Omoju, 2010). The above led to the study on the role of women empowerment and its impact on the economic growth of Nigeria.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The primary aim of this study is to examine the role of women empowerment and its impact on the economic growth of Nigeria. The specific objectives are;

  1. To ascertain the impact of women empowerment on economic development of Nigeria.
  2. To examine the effect of women empowerment to poverty alleviation and sustainable development of Nigeria.
  • To determine the roles of government in encouraging women empowerment in Nigeria.
  1. To ascertain the available government empowerment programmes for both urban and rural women in Nigeria.
  2. To identify the factors which may militate against full empowerment and participation of Nigerian women in empowerment initiatives.

1.4 Research Questions

The following research questions will serve as a guide to this study:

  1. Are there significant the impact of women empowerment on economic development of Nigeria?
  2. Are there significant effect of women empowerment to poverty alleviation and sustainable development of Nigeria?
  3. What are the roles of government in encouraging women empowerment in Nigeria?
  4. What are the available government empowerment programmes for both urban and rural women in Nigeria?
  5. Are there factors militating against full the empowerment and participation of Nigerian women in empowerment initiatives?

1.5 Research Hypotheses

The following hypotheses to be tested at 0.5% level of significance were formulated in line with the above objectives and questions:

H0: There are no significant the impact of women empowerment on economic development of Nigeria.

H1: There are significant the impact of women empowerment on economic development of Nigeria.

H0: There no available government empowerment programmes for both urban and rural women in Nigeria.

H2: There available government empowerment programmes for both urban and rural women in Nigeria.

1.6 Significance of the Study

The study on the role of women empowerment and its impact on the economic growth of Nigeria is timely and imperative in the sense that not much research has been carried out on women empowerment especially in relation to economic growth. This study will therefore provide, the baseline data on the available empowerment for women in the region and the country at large. Considering the nature of economic activities in Nigeria, this study will broaden the theoretical understanding of the subject matter of women empowerment and what impact it can have on them when there are interventions. The study will also contribute new ideas as well as fill in gaps in existing knowledge and literature in the area of women’s empowerment. This study is meant to enlighten women community leaders, traditional and religious leaders, women groups and relevant institutions to enhance placing vulnerable women at the front burner of empowerment. Again, the study findings will serve as a source of reference to others who may want to carryout similar research in a more wider and detailed format.

  • Scope of the Study

This study examines the role of women empowerment and its impact on the economic growth of Nigeria. As such, the scope of this study is limited to women in small scale industries, market women, women community leaders, women traditional and religious leaders, women groups and registered women corporative societies in Uyo Local government area of Akwa Ibom State.

At present this study covers all the women in Akwa Ibom State, but restricted to Uyo local government area.

1.8 Limitation of the Study

This study is limited by its time scope, available literature on the subject matter and other geographical factors. A longer duration would have given the researcher time to study a broader cross-section of women empowerment in different locations in the country. Also, some funding would have enabled the researcher to travel extensively to interview other women outside the study area to get a wider insight of the study. Available materials on the subject matter was scarce to come by hence the researcher had to make do with the materials available.

1.9 Definition of Terms

Women: A woman is an adult human being; the term woman is also sometimes used to identify a female human regardless of age (Louis, 2011).

Empowerment: Empowerment is the degree of autonomy and self-determination in people and in communities. This enables them to represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined way, acting on their own authority.

Women Empowerment: Women’s empowerment can be defined to promoting women’s sense of self-worth, their ability to determine their own choices, and their right to influence social change for themselves and others. .

Economic Growth: Economic growth can be defined as the increase or improvement in the inflation-adjusted market value of the goods and services produced by an economy over time.

 

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