Partnership for Advancing Women in Economic Development (PAWED) has deplored the allocation to women in the 2024 Budget set for passage.

The group, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in a statement, yesterday, in Abuja, said the budget “inadequately caters” for the economic development of women.

Led by National President, Network of Entrepreneurial Women (NEW), Funmilayo Arowoogun, they said the proposed budget of N12.59 billion to women, when compared to the N78 billion of 2023, showed 82 per cent reduction at a time the government is promoting renewed investment in women’s economic empowerment under its Renewed Hope agenda.

Arowoogun stated: “Women representatives came together to spend one full day reviewing the 2024 proposed budget estimates for women’s economic empowerment.

“While we are happy to note the allocation of N12.59 billion for women’s economic empowerment projects across board in the 2024 estimates, we observe that this allocation represents an 82 per cent reduction from the 2023 allocation of N72 billion.
“We are even more concerned to note that we see only 99 WEE (Women Economic Empowerment) projects in the 2024 budget compared to 164 projects in the 2022 budget.”

PAWED, including Association of Women Entrepreneurs (AWITA), National Association of Women Entrepreneurs (NAWE) and National Council for Women Societies (NCWS), observed that compared with the 2023 provisions, which had over 442 WEE projects for women, youth, and others, the 2024 budget has only 107 such projects.

It, therefore, appealed to the Federal Government for an upward review, more gender-disaggregated and beneficiary-specific review of the 2024 budget allocation for WEE, so that the laudable commitments of the Renewed Hope agenda could be achieved.

“Together, we can work towards a more inclusive and economically empowered Nigeria,” the group added.