The predominant economic activities of residents in our focus area are small scale businesses like buying, selling, printing and transpiration services (buses, taxis, okadas and tricycles). These activities are predominantly managed by men, leaving over 70% of the women who are poor, single parents or widowed with no source of income. With unemployment on the rise and with over 16 million Nigerian unemployed, many of the youths do not even have access to education and are generally termed ”unemployable”. With the increasing level of poverty, low education and unemployment, the women are the highest hit of this economic hardship and are le with three (3) options;

1. Join an apprenticeship program to become tailors, waitresses, cooks or any menial jobs.
2. Become victims of domestic violence, unwanted pregnancy, drug abuse and diverse social vices.
3. Become Layabout and do nothing.
4.  

According to a report by The World Poverty Clock (June 2018), Nigeria has overtaken India as the country with the most extremely poor people in the world. With an estimated populaon of 180 million people and half of it being women; it is shocking to find that 86.9 million of the Nigerian population living in extreme poverty are women. Women constitute a vital social group in all known human societies yet, this vital group has been mitigated with very harrowing challenges in their various respective societies. In Nigeria, many women continue to face daunting and debilitating challenges such as;

• Extreme poverty
• Financial Inclusion and empowerment
• Sexual and reproductive health rights and maternal mortality
• Child marriage, female genital mutilation, and girl child labour
• Domestic violence, women’s education, advocacy, and several others.

The above listed continues to mitigate women from living happily and contributing their quota to national growth and development. Since women constitute half of the population, any development process that ignores the life-chances of half the population cannot address the problem of poverty and the crisis of sustainability

This is why at this critical juncture of global change, it is a necessity for the development process to fully incorporate an agenda for women’s empowerment by including women’s realities in the fullest sense.