By Chioma Obinagwam
Across Nigeria, women build businesses, drive culture, and sustain families. Yet, a persistent financing gap keeps too many of their ideas trapped at the idea stage. At the 2026 International Women’s Day Conference in Lagos, the Federal Government (FG) and Access Bank Plc made one thing clear: that has to change.
The conference, Confiance News gathered, organised by Access Bank Plc, drew over 5,000 participants physically and virtually, bringing together voices from government, banking, civil society and entrepreneurship around a shared agenda: expanding women’s access to capital, skills and leadership.
Government Repositions Culture as an Economic Sector
The Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, delivered a keynote through her representative, Mrs Aisha Adamu, Director-General of the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC).
Musawa identified three factors shaping women’s participation in national development: culture, capital and courage.
“Across Nigeria, women have always been the invisible architects of our culture, yet their contributions have been underrepresented and undervalued,” she said.
The ministry, she explained, is repositioning culture from a soft sector to a structured economic engine. Creative hubs, skills development programmes and enterprise support targeting women in film, fashion, digital media and tourism are central to that push.
40% of SMEs Are Women-Owned. They Still Can’t Get Loans.
The numbers from the conference tell a striking story. Women-owned businesses account for roughly 40 per cent of small and medium enterprises in Nigeria. Women drive nearly 40 per cent of new enterprises. SMEs, in turn, contribute approximately 48 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and over 80 per cent of employment.
Yet, Access Bank Chairman Mrs Ifeyinwa Osime described the financing gap facing women as one of the biggest constraints on economic growth in Nigeria. “No economy can optimise its potential while underinvesting in half of its population,” she said.
Musawa echoed this directly: “Too many ideas remain small not because they lack potential, but because they lack access to capital.”
The government, Musawa added, is working to unlock targeted funding for women entrepreneurs, strengthen market access and improve data systems to better track and support them.
Access Bank’s W Initiative: Finance, Training, Healthcare
Access Bank has positioned its W Initiative and Womenpreneur Pitch-a-ton programme as direct responses to the gap. The programmes provide financing, business training and healthcare support to thousands of women across Nigeria.
Osime was deliberate about framing the bank’s approach: “When we speak of giving, it is about expanding access to finance, markets, knowledge and platforms that enable women to build sustainable businesses.” Empowering women, she said, must be understood as a strategic economic decision, not charity.
The bank recently took this further with a special Women’s Day programme for market women in Oyingbo, Lagos, offering free health checks, beauty services and financial education. Mrs Nene Kunle-Ogunlusi, Group Head of Women Banking at Access Bank, said the bank’s commitment to women spans all economic segments, not just formal businesses.
Ezekwesili: Remove Structural Barriers or Lose Economic Potential
Former Minister of Education Dr. Oby Ezekwesili used her session to make a broader case. She argued that structural barriers limiting women’s participation are not just a justice issue; they carry a direct economic cost.
Agricultural output alone, she noted, could increase by up to 30 per cent if women had equal access to inputs as men. Limited access to finance, she added, has kept many women trapped in low-productivity enterprises.
“There is no other way societies have transformed than when people who care make an issue a priority,” Ezekwesili said. She commended Access Bank for combining financing, training, technology and market access for women-led businesses, describing such interventions as critical to scaling what women are already building.
In a one-on-one session, she pressed further on shared values as a foundation for national and continental growth, describing them as “our internal currencies.”
She urged women to invest in knowledge, build partnerships actively, and go after financing opportunities rather than wait for structural change to arrive.
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