By Rukayat Moisemhe, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
As the world marks International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8 each year, conversations around gender equality often focus on politics, technology, finance and corporate leadership.
However, another critical and often overlooked frontier is manufacturing.
In Nigeria, heavy industries such as steel, cement production, oil servicing, shipbuilding, and large-scale construction remain largely dominated by men, leaving women greatly underrepresented.
These sectors are central to Nigeria’s industrialisation and economic diversification agenda.
Yet, in spite of their importance to national development, women’s participation in them remains limited.
Indeed, although women play active roles across Nigeria’s manufacturing landscape, their participation remains largely concentrated in light manufacturing segments, including food processing, textiles, packaging and small-scale assembly.
By contrast, capital-intensive heavy industries continue to be overwhelmingly male-dominated.
Available data from the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) suggest that women make up a notable share of the manufacturing workforce, estimated at between 35 and 40 per cent.
However, their presence in core industrial operations and executive leadership positions remains significantly lower.
Furthermore, Nigeria’s manufacturing sector contributes roughly 9 to 10 per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to recent NBS figures, underscoring its strategic importance to economic diversification and job creation.
Consequently, analysts note that the underrepresentation of women in the sector’s capital-intensive segments means the country may be missing out on a major pool of talent, technical expertise and entrepreneurial potential.
Globally, development institutions have repeatedly emphasised the economic value of women’s participation in industrial production.
For instance, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) notes that economies that integrate women more effectively into manufacturing value chains often record stronger productivity growth, improved innovation outcomes and more resilient industrial ecosystems.
Similarly, the World Bank has identified gender inequality in productive sectors as one of the most significant untapped opportunities for economic expansion in developing economies.
Against this backdrop, stakeholders in Nigeria’s manufacturing sector are using the occasion of International Women’s Day to call for deliberate policy reforms.
These reforms aim to accelerate women’s participation in heavy industry and dismantle the structural barriers that limit their entry and advancement.
The theme of this year’s IWD celebration is “Give to Gain”.
In this regard, Mrs Ngozi Oyewole, President of Commonwealth Business Women Africa (CBW Africa), noted that while women play active roles in Nigeria’s manufacturing ecosystem, they face significant barriers when attempting to scale their businesses within capital-intensive heavy industries.
Oyewole acknowledged that institutions such as the Bank of Industry had introduced gender-responsive industrial financing windows but stated that access remained challenging in practice.
“Many women in heavy industry still encounter difficulties navigating scale requirements, collateral thresholds, equity contribution expectations, and long processing timelines attached to large-ticket industrial loans,” she said.
According to her, heavy manufacturing requires substantial capital investment and without flexible risk models and blended financing structures, financing may appear available but remains practically constrained for many women entrepreneurs.
In addition, she affirmed that improving access to government procurement opportunities could greatly strengthen women-led manufacturing businesses.
The CBW Africa president further noted that the Bureau of Public Procurement had engaged women stakeholders and indicated plans to develop a framework to increase women manufacturers’ participation in federal procurement.
She said a structured quota or clearly defined inclusion mechanism would significantly improve access to government contracts, especially in construction materials, steel products and wood-processing value chains.
Oyewole described public procurement as one of the most powerful industrial policy tools available to government.
She added that inclusive policies could accelerate the transition of women from small-scale production to industrial-scale manufacturing.
“Public procurement is one of the most powerful industrial policy tools available to government.
“If designed intentionally, it can accelerate women’s transition from small-scale production into industrial-scale manufacturing,” she said.
Furthermore, according to Oyewole, the implementation of the Nigeria First Policy, which prioritises local production and domestic industrial capacity, should deliberately include women-led industrial enterprises.
Similarly, Mrs Funlayo Bakare-Okeowo, Vice President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), said gender disparity in manufacturing leadership reflected structural and cultural barriers that hinder women’s progression in the sector.
Bakare-Okeowo, also the Chief Executive Officer of FAE Envelopes, said that although women accounted for about 40 per cent of the manufacturing workforce, their representation in executive positions remained significantly lower.
“The disparity is largely due to a ‘leaky pipeline’, where many women enter the industry but their career progression stalls before reaching executive leadership levels,” she said.
She explained that one major challenge is the ‘broken rung’ at the first step into management, where fewer women are promoted to supervisory and managerial positions compared to men.
Consequently, this early imbalance reduces the pool of women available for senior leadership roles in the future.
Bakare-Okeowo also highlighted occupational segregation within manufacturing, where women were often concentrated in support roles such as human resources, administration and legal services rather than core operational areas like engineering, production and plant management.
Notably, she said leadership pathways in heavy industry typically emerged from these technical and operational departments, which remained largely male-dominated.
“Leadership in heavy industry is often shaped by informal professional networks and sponsorship from senior executives, structures from which many women are excluded,” she said.
Moreover, according to her, rigid shift patterns in manufacturing plants and persistent societal expectations around caregiving responsibilities also affect women’s career progression.
Bakare-Okeowo said global studies by development institutions continued to show that women-led enterprises faced higher barriers to accessing finance.
She said the challenge was partly linked to asset ownership gaps, noting that women were less likely to possess land titles or industrial assets required as collateral for large manufacturing loans.
“Manufacturing is capital intensive and banks often require high-value collateral such as land or buildings.
“However, women generally own fewer titled assets, which limits their ability to secure industrial-scale financing,” she said.
Also speaking, Mrs Ekama Akpan, Chief Executive Officer of Showers Group, said women remained significantly underrepresented in heavy manufacturing due to structural barriers across education, workplace culture and access to capital.
Akpan said although women constituted a considerable share of the manufacturing workforce, “they are regrettably mostly concentrated in sectors such as food processing, textiles, packaging and small-scale assembly.”
According to her, cultural stereotypes and early social conditioning often discourage girls from pursuing technical careers in engineering and industrial production.
In fact, experts note that this trend often begins early in the education pipeline.
Data from Nigeria’s National Universities Commission (NUC) indicate that female enrolment in engineering and technical disciplines remains significantly lower than that of men, thereby limiting the number of women entering heavy industrial occupations.
Akpan said workplace environments in many heavy industrial facilities were also not designed with gender inclusion in mind, citing the absence of female-focused amenities and limited maternity protections.
“In one Lagos-based fabrication company, a female production supervisor shared that she had to negotiate maternity leave informally because the company had never documented such a request for a shop-floor employee before,” she said.
She also noted that women entrepreneurs seeking to establish large manufacturing businesses faced challenges accessing industrial land and factory space.
“Industrial land allocation often involves complex bureaucratic processes, political networks, and significant upfront capital, which can be difficult for many women entrepreneurs to navigate,” she said.
In addition, Akpan said unreliable power supply and infrastructure deficits further increased operating costs for manufacturing firms, placing additional pressure on smaller businesses with limited financial buffers.
Indeed, Nigeria’s manufacturing sector already faces operational constraints including high energy costs, logistics challenges and foreign exchange volatility, factors analysts say disproportionately affect new entrants and smaller firms.
She said government financing programmes for women entrepreneurs were helpful but often insufficient for the capital requirements of heavy manufacturing.
“Many interventions are designed for small businesses and the funding amounts are typically too small to support capital-intensive industrial projects,” she said.
Akpan called for a gender-sensitive industrial policy with industrial development plans that include measurable targets for women’s participation in heavy sectors, not just SMEs generally.
She also advocated the expansion of movable asset registries, equipment-based financing and credit guarantees to reduce dependence on land collateral, as well as reserving a percentage of government manufacturing contracts for women-owned firms.
She added that dedicated industrial clusters with subsidised rent, shared heavy equipment and stable electricity could significantly reduce entry barriers.
“When women are excluded from heavy manufacturing, national productivity declines, innovation diversity suffers, and industrial growth becomes less inclusive.
“Nigeria’s industrial ambition; steel revival, infrastructure expansion, petrochemical development cannot succeed fully if half the population remains structurally sidelined,” she said.
Meanwhile, beyond Nigeria, global development institutions have increasingly emphasised the importance of women’s participation in industrial production as a driver of inclusive economic growth.
According to UNIDO, countries that integrate women into manufacturing value chains tend to experience stronger productivity growth, improved innovation outcomes and greater industrial resilience.
Similarly, the World Bank notes that closing gender gaps in productive sectors could unlock significant economic gains for developing economies.
In Africa, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has also highlighted the role of women entrepreneurs in strengthening industrial ecosystems, particularly when supported with access to finance, infrastructure and skills development.
Consequently, analysts argue that enabling women to participate more fully in heavy industries would not only expand Nigeria’s skilled workforce but also strengthen domestic value chains in sectors such as steel fabrication, petrochemicals, construction materials and engineering services.
Taken together, these insights reinforce the argument that expanding women’s participation in heavy manufacturing would strengthen Nigeria’s industrialisation agenda and enhance economic competitiveness.
Ultimately, stakeholders stress that inclusive industrialisation is not only a gender issue but also an economic imperative for sustainable growth.
Therefore, achieving inclusive industrialisation will require deliberate reforms that accelerate women’s access to finance, leadership opportunities, technical training and industrial infrastructure in Nigeria’s manufacturing sector.
For many advocates, breaking gender barriers in heavy industry is not merely about equity but also about unlocking a vast reservoir of entrepreneurial potential capable of driving Nigeria’s next phase of industrial transformation. (NANFeatures)
***If used, please credit the writer and the News Agency of Nigeria.
