Empowerment Through Trade? A Critical Analysis of Gender-Sensitive Trade Policy Implementation in South-South Nigeria

This study critically interrogates the implementation of gender-sensitive external trade policies in South-South Nigeria and their implications for women’s empowerment. While global frameworks such as AfCFTA increasingly acknowledge gender equity as a developmental imperative, their translation into subnational realities remains uneven. Using a strengthened mixed-methods design—combining interviews (n=32), focus group discussions, case studies of 25 women traders, and complementary secondary trade data from NBS, UNCTAD, and ITC (2018–2024)—the paper provides both qualitative narratives and quantitative insights into women’s participation in trade. Findings across all six South-South states (Rivers, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Edo) reveal persistent barriers: unequal access to finance and information, institutional bottlenecks, and systemic exclusion from formal markets. Yet, emergent women-led cooperatives and digital trade networks demonstrate pathways of resilience. The study concludes that empowerment requires not only policy presence but institutionalized resources, agency, and achievements. Beyond policy implications, this paper contributes theoretically to feminist political economy by illustrating how gendered trade governance both reproduces and can transform structural inequalities in Africa’s largest economy.