Gender Summit: Ex-Ivorien PM Warns Against Grants-based Economy, Backs Women Inclusion
• Kwara first lady says gender inequality obstacle to development
•NESG boss: Policies must benefit those they are made for
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
Former Prime Minister and President of the National Assembly of Côte d’Ivoire, Patrick Achi, yesterday cautioned Nigeria and other African countries against building economies that become excessively dependent on grants, cash transfers and other forms of poverty alleviation, insisting that sustainable prosperity must be driven by productive employment and rising incomes.
Achi, who spoke at the 2026 Gender and Inclusion Summit organised by the Policy Innovation Centre (PIC) in Abuja, also stressed that Africa’s economic transformation would remain incomplete if women, young people and other excluded groups were not placed at the centre of development and wealth creation.
While acknowledging the importance of social protection, targeted cash transfers, development assistance and philanthropy, particularly in periods when economic growth was inadequate or its benefits were unevenly distributed, the former Ivorien prime minister warned that such interventions should not become the foundation of Africa’s economic model.
“We must be careful not to create what I would call a poverty-alleviation industry, a system that becomes very good at managing poverty without building the mechanism that ends it.
“Cash transfers and grants can be essential bridges. They can save lives and protect dignity. But if the bridge never leads to productive income, we remain vulnerable to the day the grant stops,” Achi argued.
He maintained that the lasting solution to poverty lay in creating productive economic opportunities, arguing that no country could sustainably lift millions of people out of poverty through redistribution alone.
According to him, governments must create the right conditions for investment, enterprise and large-scale job creation, while ensuring that the opportunities and benefits arising from economic growth were shared by a broader segment of the population.
“We must therefore be careful not to build a system that becomes better at managing poverty than at ending it. The lasting answer is productive employment and income.
“The state must create the conditions for investment, enterprise and job creation at scale, while ensuring that the opportunities and benefits of growth reach a much broader share of the population,” he added.
Achi further argued that inclusion should not be regarded as an additional social intervention attached to development programmes, but as an integral component of economic transformation.
He said Africa could not afford to continue excluding women and young people from education, employment, entrepreneurship and leadership, describing their marginalisation as a significant loss of productive capacity for the continent.
Also speaking, the First Lady of Kwara State and Chairperson of the Nigeria Governors’ Wives Forum, Prof. Olufolake AbdulRazaq, called for greater representation of women in decision-making positions, maintaining that gender inequality remained a major obstacle to sustainable development.
AbdulRazaq said that despite interventions in education, healthcare, economic empowerment and political participation, women continued to face barriers that limited their ability to contribute fully to national development.
She stressed that women’s economic empowerment must go beyond income generation to include access to opportunities, leadership positions, quality healthcare and education, as well as platforms where policies affecting their lives were formulated.
According to her, meaningful development would remain difficult to achieve if women continued to be excluded from the processes through which major economic and social decisions were made.
Also speaking, Chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Mr. Olaniyi Yusuf, said the major challenge confronting policymakers was no longer the absence of policies, but ensuring that commitments translated into tangible benefits for the people they were designed to serve.
Yusuf said the Gender and Inclusion Summit was conceived to help close the gap between policy commitments and the lived realities of women, girls, young people, persons with disabilities and other underserved communities.
“Nothing happens by chance. Opportunity only becomes meaningful when it reaches the last mile,” he said.
He stressed that policies, investments and innovations could only be considered successful when they produced measurable improvements in the lives of citizens, particularly those who remained excluded from economic and social opportunities.
Earlier, Chairman of PIC, Mr. Udeme Ufot, said the summit provided a platform for stakeholders to confront the persistent gap between commitments to gender inclusion and actual outcomes.
Ufot stressed the need to move beyond policy formulation and declarations to practical implementation, urging governments, the private sector, civil society and development partners to ensure that innovation, investment and public policies reached those at the margins.
He noted that the success of development interventions should ultimately be measured by their impact on ordinary citizens and their ability to close the gap between policy intentions and lived experience.
Also, the Executive Director of PIC, Dr Osasuyi Dirisu, in an interview on the sidelines of the event, stated that this year’s event was designed to examine how innovative solutions can reach the people and communities that really need them.
“The last mile for us means ensuring that the end user who needs the solutions we are developing the most is reached. Sometimes, it is a location, but sometimes it is a condition. It is about access to resources, financing and opportunities such as education, literacy and healthcare,” she pointed out.
