Closing Gender Gaps Could Add $229bn to Nigeria’s GDP Tuggar

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, has urged African governments, development partners, and the private sector to place gender and youth inclusion at the heart of economic diplomacy, warning that Africa’s transformation will remain fragile without equitable growth.

Tuggar made the call at the 2025 Gender and Inclusion Summit during a high-level plenary titled “From Aid to Investment: Leveraging Economic Diplomacy for Africa’s Inclusive Development,” organised by the Policy Innovation Centre in Abuja.

He noted that Africa, with its projected population of 2.5 billion by 2050 and a current GDP of $2.8 trillion, has the potential to drive global growth but risks stagnation if inclusivity is ignored.

Citing a Council on Foreign Relations report, Tuggar stressed the economic cost of exclusion: “If women participated in the Nigerian economy at the same rate as men, our GDP could increase by $229 billion by 2025. This is not just a social issue; it is an economic imperative.”

The minister highlighted persistent gender inequalities in education, politics, and the economy. According to him, 7.6 million Nigerian girls remain out of school, with nearly half in the North-West and North-East. Women, he added, constitute 70 percent of Africa’s informal workforce yet remain excluded from formal trade structures, while only 4.2 percent of seats in Nigeria’s National Assembly are occupied by women well below the continental average of 27.3 percent.

On education, Tuggar noted that while 73 percent of African boys complete primary school, only 69 percent of girls do, with completion rates dropping to 43 percent at lower secondary level.

He explained that Nigeria has recalibrated its foreign policy under President Bola Tinubu’s “4-D Diplomacy Agenda”  focusing on Development, Demography, Diaspora, and Democracy, to ensure inclusivity becomes a cornerstone of international engagement.

As part of this shift, initiatives such as the Regional Partnership for Democracy (RPD) have been launched to promote accountable governance and equitable participation, while the West Africa Economic Summit (WAES) earlier this year resolved to dismantle barriers limiting women’s access to finance, cross-border opportunities, and market access.

Tuggar, however, cautioned that major trade initiatives like the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) could perpetuate exclusion if not deliberately structured to include women and youth.

He commended Nigerian banks such as UBA, Access, GTCO, First Bank, and Zenith Bank for driving cross-border banking and digital integration, and praised the growing presence of women in top executive roles.

“These systems, designed to boost trade, can inadvertently exclude women if they lack access to finance, digital tools, and regional networks,” Tuggar said. “The trend of women leading in financial institutions is encouraging, but it must accelerate. Women must not just participate; they must lead.”