Nigeria’s future depends largely on how effectively women are equipped to innovate, influence policy and drive measurable impact across sectors.
By Deborah Hassan
365Daily – Nigeria cannot achieve meaningful national development if women remain excluded from leadership, decision-making and economic opportunities, the Special Adviser to the President on Policy and Coordination, Hadiza Bala Usman, has said.
Speaking at the 2026 Young Women’s Leadership Conference (YWLC) in Abuja, Bala Usman called on the executive, legislature and public institutions to deliberately create pathways that empower young women to contribute meaningfully to governance, innovation and nation-building.
Describing the leadership of young women as “not a social courtesy, but a development necessity,” she said Nigeria’s future depends largely on how effectively women are equipped to innovate, influence policy and drive measurable impact across sectors.
“Education must lead to agency, agency must lead to leadership, leadership must lead to measurable impact,” she said, stressing that empowering women does far more than transform individual lives.
“You do not merely create one person for success, you expand the productive capacity of a nation, strengthen its institutions, widen its imagination and accelerate its future.”
Bala Usman noted that although Nigerian women continue to excel as professionals, entrepreneurs, public servants, scientists, artists and community builders, many remain excluded from the spaces where critical national decisions are made.
“Promise and participation are not the same as power,” she stated.
“Too many capable young women remain close enough to feel the weight of national problems but are too far away from the table where solutions are designed, resources are allocated and institutions are reformed.”
According to her, government must move beyond symbolic support by making inclusion “part of delivery and not an afterthought” through gender-responsive planning and budgeting, safer schools and communities, stronger protection policies, expanded access to skills and enterprise support, as well as measurable accountability systems.
She further emphasised the role of lawmakers and public institutions in ensuring that laws protecting women translate into real change.
“The legislature and public institutions also have crucial roles in strengthening laws, policies and accountability mechanisms that expand opportunities for women. Legal frameworks are only as powerful as their implementation,” she said.
Bala Usman also condemned discriminatory practices against women in public institutions, recounting instances where female civil servants were required to obtain written consent from their husbands before being allocated official housing.
“I found that ridiculous because you rise, you come to work every day, you are a director, why should an allocation of a house be tied to the consent of a husband?” she said.
She also criticised policies denying maternity leave to unmarried women, describing such practices as “nonsensical.”
“A nation that relies on its women being able to endure more than it enables them to lead is wasting capacity,” she added.
The conference, themed “Innovate, Influence, Impact: Accelerating Young Women’s Roles in National Development,” was organised by the Citizenship and Leadership Training Centre (CLTC) under the leadership of its Director-General, Rinsola Abiola, in collaboration with several partners, including the Federal Ministry of Youth Development, the African Women Leaders Network (AWLN) Nigeria Chapter, NEXIM Bank and NASENI.
In her welcome address, Abiola described the conference as a deliberate investment in Nigeria’s future and a reflection of the Federal Government’s commitment to youth and women empowerment under the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
She disclosed that more than 1,500 young women have benefited from the initiative since it was launched in 2024 through mentorship, entrepreneurship and leadership development opportunities.
According to her, 20 participants selected after the 2025 edition received intensive business and leadership training, alongside grants of N500,000 each to scale their businesses.
“And since then, those businesses have grown and scaled, employing people and empowering their founders,” she said.
Abiola encouraged participants to see themselves as future leaders capable of shaping Nigeria’s political, economic and technological future.
“This conversation belongs to all young women across Nigeria, not just Abuja,” she added.
Also speaking, the Chairman/CEO of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, urged women to prioritise competence, professionalism and hard work over appearances.
“Beauty is not what will take you forever. Competence and your values are what matter,” she said.
Dabiri-Erewa encouraged more women to venture into politics and public service, while calling for stronger mentorship structures to support female leadership.
“Women are change makers. Let’s show that indeed we are agents of change,” she said.
The event featured panel discussions with women leaders across governance, business and technology and ended with the signing of a partnership agreement between the Citizenship and Leadership Training Centre (CLTC) and the African Women Leaders Network (AWLN) Nigeria Chapter.
The agreement, signed by Abiola and Zainab Abdurrasheed, is aimed at implementing inter-generational mentorship programmes for young women ahead of the next edition of the conference.