WEF Report: Nigeria Lags in Gender Political Empowerment, Ranks 143 out of 145 Countries

The World Economic Forum (WEF) released its 2026 Global Gender Gap Report, which indicates that Nigeria lags significantly behind in gender political empowerment, ranking 143rd out of 145 countries. The report estimates global gender parity will be achieved in 120 years, based on the current rate of progress. Nigeria is ranked above Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu, which scored 0.015 and 0.000, respectively, in the political empowerment sub-index.

Iceland, Finland, and Norway topped the rankings with scores of 0.954, 0.728, and 0.704, respectively. The Global Gender Gap Index has been tracking progress towards gender parity across four dimensions: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. Over the past 20 years, the index has seen a 5.2 percentage point increase in global scores, from 64.2% in 2006 to 69.4% in 2026.

Nigeria has the most room for improvement in political empowerment, with 96.3% of the gender gap remaining to be closed. The country ranks third from the bottom in this sub-index and has the lowest ministerial and parliamentary parity, below the 10% threshold, and has declined over time. Despite this, Nigeria has closed more than two-thirds of its gender gap in 2026, achieving a 67.6% gender parity score and ranking 144th globally.

Compared to 2025, Nigeria's score improved by 2.7 percentage points, from 64.9%, and its overall ranking improved by 10 places. The Sub-Saharan economy has advanced 6.6 percentage points since 2006, with the most significant annual improvement in the current edition. Among the top 30 performers in the Economic Participation and Opportunity sub-index, Nigeria's economic parity score is now 76.6%, the 7th highest in its Sub-Saharan African region, up from 61.2% in 2006.

The report highlights that while progress has been made, it is neither automatic nor fast enough, as no economy has achieved full gender parity.