By Rukayat Moisemhe
As the world marks International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8, gender conversations often focus on politics, technology, and finance.
However, one of the most overlooked frontiers is manufacturing, particularly Nigeria’s heavy industries such as steel, cement, oil servicing, shipbuilding, and large-scale construction.
Although women play active roles across Nigeria’s manufacturing landscape, their participation remains largely concentrated in light manufacturing, while heavy industrial sectors continue to be overwhelmingly male-dominated.
Stakeholders in the manufacturing sector are therefore using the occasion of the celebration of IWD to request for deliberate policy reforms to accelerate women’s participation in heavy industry and dismantle structural barriers limiting their entry and advancement.
The theme of this year’s IWD celebration is “Give to Gain. ”
Mrs Ngozi Oyewole, President of Commonwealth Business Women Africa (CBW Africa), noted that while women played an active role 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.
She affirmed that improving access to government procurement opportunities could significantly strengthen women-led manufacturing businesses.
The CBW Africa president 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, particularly 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.
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 hindered 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.
According to her, 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.
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.
According to her, that 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, 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.
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.
Akpan added that unreliable power supply and infrastructure deficits further increased operating costs for manufacturing firms, placing additional pressure on smaller businesses with limited financial buffers.
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 included 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.
These stakeholders have pointed out that expanding women’s participation in heavy manufacturing would strengthen Nigeria’s industrialisation agenda and enhance economic competitiveness.
They maintain 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, and industrial infrastructure in Nigeria’s manufacturing sector.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
