Nigerian women, especially those living in Lagos, are bound by laws that affected starting and running a business as well as the size of their pension, a new report by the World Bank has said.
According to World Bank’s assessment of laws and regulations that affect women’s economic opportunity, women in Nigeria also face constraints working after having children and gender differences in property and inheritance.
However, it found that in constraints related to marriage, Nigeria gets a perfect score of 100.
The report entitled ‘Women, Business and the Law 2021’ is the seventh in a series of annual studies of laws and regulations affecting women in 190 economies.
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The project presents eight indicators structured around women’s interactions with the law as they move through their careers: Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension.
The World Bank calculated overall scores of each country by taking the average of each indicator, with 100 representing the highest possible score and Nigeria scored 63.1 out of 100, a score that is lower than the regional average of 71 in Sub-Saharan Africa,
The report stated, “When it comes to constraints on freedom of movement, laws affecting women’s decisions to work, laws affecting women’s pay, laws affecting women’s work after having children, constraints on women’s starting and running a business, gender differences in property and inheritance, and laws affecting the size of a woman’s pension, Nigeria could consider reforms to improve legal equality for women.
“For example, one of the lowest scores for Nigeria is on the indicator related to laws affecting women’s work after having children (the WBL2021 Parenthood Indicator).
To improve on the Parenthood Indicator, it advised the Nigerian government to consider making paid leave of at least 14 weeks available to mothers, and administer 100 per cent of maternity leave benefits.
It suggested making paid leave available to fathers, making paid parental leave available, and prohibiting the dismissal of pregnant workers.
