DECISION OVER WIFE'S EARNINGS

In addition to having access to income, women need to have control over their earnings to be empowered. In Nigeria, around 70 percent of currently married women who earn cash report that they themselves mainly decide how their cash earnings are used; another 19 percent report that they decide jointly with their husbands, and 10 percent report that their husbands alone decide how their earnings are used.

There are regional variations in who makes decisions about how women’s earnings are used. The percentage of women who make independent decisions on the use of their earnings ranges from 41 percent in the South East to 88 percent in the North West. Women in the South South and South East (41 percent and 38 percent, respectively) are most likely to decide jointly with their husbands on how to spend the money they make. In the North Central zone, husbands are most likely (26 percent) to make decisions on the use of their wives’ earnings.