Gender Strategy Advancement International

21/08/2026

19/08/2026

At Gender Strategy Advancement International (GSAI), we believe that every woman who rises can help create space for another, and every girl who sees a woman leading can begin to imagine herself in that space.

For Adedayo Benjamins-Laniyi, women’s empowerment has been woven into a journey spanning advocacy, media, public service, political engagement, mentorship, and community development.

As the Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of the Maryam Babangida National Centre for Women Development (MBNCWD), she continues to serve in a space where advancing the rights, visibility, welfare, and leadership opportunities of women and girls is central to the national conversation.

Her journey, from media and public engagement to political participation and public service, offers an important reminder: women must not only be encouraged to participate; they must be equipped, supported, mentored, and positioned to lead.

Through initiatives such as the Dream Girls project and her continued mentorship of women in politics, Benjamins-Laniyi has demonstrated the power of investing in women and girls early, building confidence, nurturing ambition, and opening pathways to leadership.

Nigeria does not lack capable women. What we need is a system that gives more women the opportunity, visibility, resources, and platforms to translate their capacity into leadership.

The journey to inclusive governance begins by ensuring that women and girls are not merely prepared to watch leadership happen; they are prepared to shape it.

18/08/2026

At Gender Strategy Advancement International (GSAI), we believe that information is power, and access to information is an essential part of economic empowerment.

Across Nigeria, women farmers are feeding communities, sustaining households, creating livelihoods, and contributing significantly to the agricultural economy. Yet, many continue to face a critical barrier: limited access to timely information, markets, policies, and trade opportunities.

When women farmers do not have access to information about trade agreements, market opportunities, pricing, standards, financing, technology, and government programmes, they are not simply left uninformed; they are left behind.

How can women compete in markets they cannot fully access?
How can they benefit from trade agreements they cannot understand or navigate?
How can they influence agricultural policies when they are not adequately included in the conversations shaping them?

Women farmers must be equipped with the knowledge, networks, technology, finance, and market access needed to move from producers to powerful economic actors.

Trade must work for the women who produce.
Agricultural policies must reach the women who farm.
Information must reach the women who need it.
And women's voices must be present wherever decisions about agriculture and trade are made.

It is time to close the information gap, strengthen women's economic agency, and ensure that Nigeria's women farmers are not merely beneficiaries of agricultural development, but active participants in shaping it.

Click the link below to watch more on the Investigative Report done by GSAI, proudly supported by Wole Soyinka Center for Investigative Reporting and MacArthur Foundation.

https://youtu.be/Pp2YvqyElMk?si=1tvWe8cZpfDrmwui