New report highlights need for diverse leadership, measurable policy outcomes
A new NarratEQ analysis by Gatefield has highlighted the urgent need for diverse leadership distribution and measurable policy outcomes for economic sustainability.
“We went from 31 percent women in cabinet to 8.8 percent, and our economic growth slowed along with it. More diverse leadership means more perspectives informing policy, and this shows up in measurable outcomes,” Farida Adamu, lead, insights & analytics, Gatefield, said during a recent webinar to launch NarratEQ, a new data platform for gender equality insights.
According to the new Gatefield’s gender equality insights hub, Nigeria’s low representation of women in political leadership is costing the country economically.
“Surfacing this kind of evidence through NarratEQ is important to us, because it gives the gender equality conversation the seriousness it deserves,” Adamu said.
Compared to countries like Rwanda, which maintains a global lead of 61 percent women in parliament, and South Africa, averaging 45 percent women’s representation in both parliament and cabinet.
Nigeria on the other hand has moved backward, from 31 percent cabinet representation to 8.8 percent under current leadership, defying both its national policy mandate of 35 percent representation and a global trend toward greater inclusion.
According to Adamu, the data also reveals a cultural resistance underlying the current numbers. While 64 percent of Nigerians express comfort with women in corporate leadership, only 50 percent feel the same way about women in political leadership.
“This perception gap reinforces structural exclusion even when policies exist on paper. These findings mark the debut of NarratEQ, a first-of-its-kind gender data hub developed by Gatefield, a public strategy and advocacy group, to make gender equality insights accessible, visual, and actionable.”
According to Adamu, the platform consolidates verified data across six sectors: political leadership, economic empowerment, health, education, care economy, and corporate representation.
She disclosed that the platform delivers monthly insights, story starters, and downloadable quality-scored datasets for journalists, policymakers, and researchers.
During the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan (2010–2015), when women held 31% of cabinet positions, Nigeria’s economy experienced sustained GDP growth of 6–7%, reaching its largest size in history.
Under successive administrations where women’s representation dropped to 8.8%, economic growth slowed, reflecting a global pattern where higher women’s participation in leadership correlates with stronger economic outcomes.
Nigeria ranks 180th out of 190 countries globally in women’s political representation, with only 3.9% of senators and 8.8% of current cabinet positions held by women, the lowest among major African economies.
“NarratEQ is a response to a very nagging problem of siloed data that makes insights difficult to work with in Nigeria. Where data exists, it’s in silos – you can hardly bring them together to get something you can really work with. This initiative will make our situation better,” said Alfred Ajayi, one of the attendees.
