The study on the gender digital divide in Nigeria provides projects with insights, evidence, and guidance on the challenges and opportunities involved in ensuring that rural women are included in digital activities.

The study shows the interfaces and linkages between women in agri-food systems, their roles, needs and diverse circumstances as well as digital inclusion, including opportunities and constraints related to women’s access to, use of and benefit from digital technologies and services.

It is based on research conducted with women engaged in Nigeria’s agri-food systems, specifically Kaduna and Ogun States. It identifies a consistent set of barriers limiting women’s digital participation in the maize value chain, including:

• restrictive gender norms
• financial constraints
• low digital confidence
• language and literacy barriers
• inadequate digital solutions for post-harvest activities, processing and marketing
• weak digital infrastructure
• institutional exclusion
• increased risks of gender-based violence

The findings reveal important differences among women, showing for example that widowed women often enjoy greater digital autonomy than married women and women with disabilities remain largely excluded from digital opportunities.

The study further highlights practical entry points for gender-transformative interventions and identifies women-focused programmes delivered through predominantly female implementation structures as a particularly effective approach to fostering safe and meaningful digital participation.

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(15 MB)

About

The study has been co-developed by the SNRD Africa working group on Digital Transformation and the GIZ project Feminist Approach to Resilient Agriculture and Food Systems (FemHub).

Contact

Sabine Strelow (sabine.strelow@giz.de) and Birte Brecht-Drouart (birte.brecht-drouart@giz.de).