By Nkechi Eze
The Minister of Women Affairs, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, has officially kicked off the 2025 International Women’s Day celebrations in Abuja, Nigeria, with a call to “Accelerate Action” towards empowering women and girls.
This theme emphasizes the urgent need for bold and decisive action to break down barriers and create equal opportunities for Nigerian women and girls.
The Minister underscored the need for deliberate, decisive, and bold action to break barriers, close gaps, and empower Nigerian women and girls. This call to action is particularly significant in Nigeria, where women continue to face persistent challenges despite their remarkable contributions to national development.
She recognized the significant strides made in enacting laws that promote gender equality, specifically the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act and the Child Rights Act. However, she emphasized that full implementation of these laws remains a challenge. Despite progress, only 35 states have adopted the VAPP Act, while 34 states have enacted the Child Rights Act, highlighting the need for continued efforts to ensure these laws are fully enforced across all states.
“While Nigeria has made significant progress in enacting gender-responsive laws such as the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act (VAPP) and the Child Rights Act, full implementation remains a challenge. As of today, 35 states have domesticated the VAPP Act, while 34 states have adopted the Child Rights Act – a step in the right direction but not yet enough.
“We need full compliance, effective enforcement, and accountability to ensure that the rights enshrined in these laws are a lived reality for every Nigerian woman and girl.” She said.
The Minister further identified four key areas that require urgent attention to include Legal and Policy Framework, Ensuring full compliance, effective enforcement, and accountability in gender-responsive laws.
Economic Empowerment, by closing the gender financing gap, expanding opportunities in trade, technology, and digital skills, and providing structured support for women entrepreneurs.
Gender-Based Violence and Social Norms, strengthening survivor-centered services, reviewing laws, and creating safe spaces to address the alarming rates of physical and sexual violence and Political Representation and Leadership, by accelerating efforts toward political inclusion, ensuring women have a seat at the table as equal partners in governance and development.
According to Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, this landmark decision signals a new era of government commitment to institutionalizing women’s empowerment as a core pillar of national development.
The Minister expressed gratitude to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for substantially boosting the Ministry’s budget, marking a significant shift in the government’s commitment to empowering women. With these additional funds, the Ministry will focus on initiatives that promote women’s economic empowerment, digital skills training for girls, and efforts to combat gender-based violence.
“With these increased resources, we will prioritize the resuscitation of one of the Ministry’s legacy project, the National electronic dashboard launched as part of a collaboration between the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs under the European Union-United Nations (EU-UN) Spotlight Initiative to provide comprehensive data to help tackle gender-based violence in November 2020 and the inter-ministerial technical committee on GBV.
“we will expand programmes on women’s economic empowerment, promote digital skills acquisition for girls, scale up family cohesion programmes, revitalize child protection and participation and unlock new opportunities for women through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), amongst others.
“We will prioritize legislative advocacy, the economic empowerment of women, girls’ education, and the fight against gender-based violence.” She said.
The event’s highlights included the presentation of gift of a brand-new wheelchair to Ms. Lois, as well as the presentation of the National Wrapper to journalists who covered the event.
