Nigeria’s New Women’s Skills Push Isn’t Its Only One

By Roger A. Agana 

August 22, 2026

Nigeria has launched the second edition of SheIsIncluded, targeting 10 million women for digital skills and credentials, months after a separate government programme said it had already reached 25 million.

The SheIsIncluded 2026 Summit, held August 19 to 20 at the Presidential Villa in Abuja under the theme “Designing for Delivery: Financing. Systems. Scale,” brought together government officials, development partners and private-sector organisations to move the initiative from planning into delivery. It was convened by the Presidential Committee on  Economic and Financial Inclusion (PreCEFI) and the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, and is coordinated nationally through COWRIE, the Coalition on Women Empowerment. Minister of Women Affairs Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim said the goal was to move women beyond being “beneficiaries of intervention programmes” toward becoming “co-creators of prosperity.”

Under the programme, women enrol by phone, complete free training in local languages, and receive verifiable credentials intended to be recognised by employers and financial institutions. Ubuntu Tribe, delivering the training through its Ubuntu Tribe Academy platform, is the initiative’s implementation and technology partner. PreCEFI Secretary Nurudeen Zauro described the summit as marking a shift “from policy conversations to practical implementation.”

SheIsIncluded is not Nigeria’s only large-scale women’s  economic programme, and this is not its first edition. The Ministry of Information has described the Abuja summit as advancing the “second edition” of the initiative. Separately, President Bola Tinubu expanded the existing Nigeria for Women Programme to 25 million beneficiaries in February, rolling out a “Happy Woman App Platform” that also connects women to finance, skills and markets, after a six-state pilot phase had already reached more than a million people. The government has not explained publicly how the two programmes, both aimed at women’s digital and financial inclusion and both operating through mobile platforms, are meant to complement rather than duplicate each other.

SheIsIncluded aims to bring 10 million women within reach of skills, credentials and economic opportunities. Federal government figures cited at the summit show national digital skills initiatives have reached more than 263,000 Nigerians to date, a figure organisers stressed reflects government data and policy targets rather than results attributable to SheIsIncluded or Ubuntu Tribe specifically. Women’s economic participation is positioned as part of Nigeria’s broader ambition to build a 1 trillion dollar economy by 2030.

Ubuntu Tribe founder Mamadou Kwidjim Toure said the model was designed so that “a woman should not need wealth or proximity to opportunity to develop a valuable skill,” using the phone she already owns to access training and a credential “the economy can recognise.” Training remains free for participants, funded through the coalition of government agencies, development partners and private-sector organisations. Organisers say the initiative’s progress will be measured by how many women gain recognised credentials and convert them into jobs, businesses or access to finance, a bar that will also apply to distinguishing SheIsIncluded’s results from those of Nigeria’s other overlapping women’s programmes.