The World Bank has revealed that only 10.5% of Nigerian women are engaged in wage and salaried employment, underscoring persistent structural barriers to formal job access despite high participation in the labour market.
The finding, contained in its Nigeria Gender Data Landscape 2026 report, highlights a widening gap in job quality and income security between male and female workers across the country.
According to the report, female labour force participation stood at 80.7% in 2025—well above the global average of 48.9%. However, the majority of women remain concentrated in informal, unpaid, or otherwise vulnerable forms of employment.
By contrast, 17.0% of men are engaged in wage and salaried roles, reflecting a significant gender disparity in access to stable, income-generating jobs.
The report further notes that nearly eight in 10 employed women—79.1%—are in vulnerable employment, compared with 54.8% of men. This disparity raises concerns about job security, earnings stability, and overall working conditions for female workers.
Nigeria also trails global and regional benchmarks. Women’s wage employment rate remains far below the Sub-Saharan African average of 16.9% and the global average of 54.6%, pointing to systemic constraints within the labour market.
While women remain highly active in the workforce, the report stresses that participation alone does not equate to economic empowerment, emphasising the urgent need to improve access to quality, formal employment.
The data also highlights early labour market challenges. Approximately 13.4% of young women are not in education, employment, or training (NEET), compared with 10.5% of young men.
Although female youth unemployment stands at 6.29%—lower than both regional and global averages—the report suggests that many young women are still confined to low-quality or informal work.
The World Bank emphasises that addressing these disparities is critical to improving productivity, reducing poverty, and achieving inclusive economic growth, noting that expanding women’s access to formal employment must remain a central policy priority for stakeholders in both the public and private sectors.
