When state governments talk about innovation, women are often missing from the picture. The language sounds progressive “digital transformation,” “startup ecosystem,” “youth empowerment”, but behind the press releases, most of the structures being built are quietly gender-blind. Across Nigeria, as states roll out startup bills, innovation councils, and tech hubs, too few are asking a critical question: where are the women in all this?
It’s not for lack of talent. Women across the South-East and South-South are launching startups, running coding communities, designing apps, managing creative tech collectives, and leading digital education initiatives. Yet, when these women look for state-backed support, seed funding, policy inclusion, or representation on innovation boards, the silence is loud.
If we want regional tech ecosystems that are sustainable and not just performative, the inclusion of women must move from conversation to codified policy. Because inclusion, at its core, isn’t a favour, it’s a growth strategy.
The Missing Link in Innovation Policy
Across Africa, women-led startups receive less than 15% of venture capital funding, according to 2024 ecosystem data from Partech and Briter Bridges. In Nigeria, that gap widens dramatically outside Lagos, where most investors and policymakers are concentrated.
When you zoom into regional policies, you begin to see why. The few states developing innovation frameworks often copy Lagos’ template without local customisation, and in doing so, they replicate its biases. They create startup councils filled with men, allocate funds without gender benchmarks, and design digital training programs that don’t consider the real-life constraints women face, such as unpaid care work or limited mobility.
This lack of inclusion is not benign. It shapes who gets funded, who gets visibility, and ultimately, whose innovations survive. Policies that ignore women inadvertently limit a state’s own economic potential. The innovation conversation cannot be complete without the people who make up half of the workforce.
Inclusion Is an Economic Issue, Not Just a Social One
Women don’t just need to be in tech; economies need them there. Data from the World Bank shows that closing the gender gap in digital and entrepreneurial participation could add billions to Africa’s GDP annually. Women bring distinct leadership styles, collaborative, risk-aware, and community-driven, that often make startups more sustainable.
When women are involved in shaping tech ecosystems, the benefits extend far beyond representation. Studies across Africa and Asia have shown that women-led companies are more likely to hire locally, reinvest in their communities, and focus on long-term value creation rather than pursuing quick exits.
In states across the South-East and South-South that are trying to build tech identities from Enugu’s emerging startup clusters to Edo’s creative tech scene, this kind of leadership is exactly what’s needed to create stability and inclusive growth.
Policy Blind Spots Holding Women Back
To be clear, it’s not enough to launch a women’s day event or name-drop “female inclusion” in speeches. States must design policies that account for the specific barriers women face in the tech industry. Some of these include:
Lack of access to funding: Most local grant and innovation programs have no gender quotas. Without intentional design, men who already dominate the networks where opportunities circulate keep getting picked.
Limited representation in decision-making: Few state innovation boards or advisory councils include women founders or investors. That absence filters down to the priorities these councils set.
Skills gaps reinforced by social structure: Many girls and women miss out on early digital training because of cultural expectations, cost, or lack of role models. Without state-backed intervention, this cycle repeats.
Infrastructural inequities: Poor internet connectivity, insecurity, and unreliable power in certain communities make remote work or digital entrepreneurship harder for women, especially those juggling family responsibilities.
Ignoring these realities while claiming to “support startups” only builds exclusion into the foundation of innovation policy.
What States Can Do Differently
To fix this, governments need to stop treating inclusion as charity and start treating it as infrastructure. Here are tangible ways state and regional governments can build gender-inclusive innovation ecosystems:
1. Design gender-sensitive innovation policies.
Every state drafting an innovation or startup bill should mandate gender inclusion at all levels — from board composition to funding eligibility. Women founders, educators, and professionals should be part of drafting and reviewing those policies, not just invited to launch events.
2. Allocate gender-focused funding.
Set up dedicated funding lines or gender quotas within existing innovation funds. A 30–40% allocation for women-led startups can go a long way in closing the opportunity gap, provided it’s backed by transparency and capacity-building.
3. Build digital and entrepreneurial literacy from the ground up.
Integrate coding, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy programs for girls and young women into state education systems. Partner with local NGOs or hubs to make them sustainable.
4. Ensure representation in decision-making bodies.
From innovation councils to venture boards, women’s representation should be a requirement, not an afterthought. Inclusion at the top shapes outcomes on the ground.
5. Rethink infrastructure design.
State-backed innovation hubs and coworking spaces should include policies that consider women’s realities, flexible hours, childcare-friendly environments, and security-conscious locations. Small details like these determine who actually participates.
These are not lofty ideals. They’re achievable, cost-effective interventions that make tech ecosystems stronger and more balanced.
Learning From Examples
Some of the most progressive innovation environments on the continent have one thing in common, which is that they mainstream gender from the start. Rwanda’s ICT policy, for example, integrates gender inclusion as a national priority, ensuring women are represented in every major tech initiative. In Kenya, the government works with private accelerators to train and fund women founders through blended finance schemes.
Closer to home, Lagos State’s LASRIC initiative, while not perfect, has made efforts to encourage women’s participation through targeted programs. But what’s missing is replication in other states. The South-East and South-South, with their growing creative and digital communities, have a unique opportunity to build inclusive systems from scratch rather than inheriting Lagos’ biases.
Imagine an Enugu Innovation Policy that reserves 40% of its advisory council seats for women. Or a Delta State Tech Fund that partners with local women-led accelerators to train and fund female founders. Or an Edo Creative Tech Council that mandates gender parity in all project selection committees.
These are the building blocks of a truly inclusive innovation ecosystem, one that recognises that women aren’t waiting for permission to innovate; they’re already doing it.
Breaking Cultural and Structural Barriers
Of course, policies alone can’t fix everything. Cultural attitudes still hold women back. Across the South-East and South-South, women in tech often face subtle exclusion from being second-guessed in meetings to being told to “tone down” ambition or defer to male counterparts.
State policies can help shift this narrative by promoting visibility, celebrating female innovators publicly, funding women-led events, and spotlighting local role models in education campaigns.
When girls see women like them leading startups, managing innovation programs, or advising governments, it redefines what’s possible. Inclusion, therefore, is not just economic or political; it’s deeply psychological.
The Cost of Exclusion
Every time a woman’s innovation dies from lack of funding or support, the state loses twice; first, it loses potential job creation, and second, the social value that often accompanies women-led ventures.
Women founders typically build solutions around community needs, education, health, commerce, and safety, areas that governments struggle with. Neglecting them means losing out on scalable, grassroots innovation that could ease governance burdens.
Simply put, states cannot claim to be serious about innovation while excluding the people solving their most human problems.
The Future Is Inclusive
Secondary cities and regions have a chance to lead where others have stumbled. By embedding gender inclusion into their innovation blueprints, they can design ecosystems that are not only competitive but also compassionate ecosystems that value sustainability over spectacle.
The vision is simple, to imagine a future where every state innovation council has equal representation, every startup fund considers women founders by design, and every young girl in Asaba, Aba, or Uyo sees tech not as a boys’ club but as a language she can speak fluently.
That’s not tokenism, that’s nation-building.
A Call to Action
If you are a policymaker reading this, inclusion should be your KPI, not your footnote. Build structures that reflect the population you serve. Fund women, train them, and trust them with leadership.
If you are a founder, mentor younger women, pull others up the ladder you’ve climbed.
If you are an investor, look beyond the usual names; inclusion isn’t charity, it’s good business.
The next chapter of Nigeria’s innovation story will not be written by policies that ignore women; it will be written by those that empower them.
I hope that the South-East and South-South can lead that rewrite.
