FEMALE LITERACY AND POVERTY- WEST AFRICA

Ngozichi, Port of Spain, Trinidad, 2013. Educate a Woman, You educate a Nation

As March is "Women History Month" I thought I would write a piece on Female literacy with a special focus on my backyard. It is not rocket science that a literate and empowered female population is crucial to reducing the poverty rates in many communities. 

When a woman is educated, she has more opportunities to work, have access to certain labor markets, and earn her own money. She is more empowered to seek out opportunities,  And can even create opportunities for others.

The old African adage "If you educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate a nation" is crucial to the development of African countries. It would change the narrative of the continent. Increasing female literacy rates and indeed literacy rates should be a policy of all governments. 

Africa is often the poster child for poverty and under-development. As an African, I was gobsmacked when I stumbled on some statistics on literacy rates. It was low and embarrassing, especially in the West African region, which is one of the poorest regions on the continent.  These stats are troubling and West African governments need to step up.

 Many times, experts group Africa into Sub-Saharan and the North.  A recurring feature post-the ice age because of the extreme climate of a sparsely populated Sahara that has created a barrier only interrupted by the river Nile. And your guess is as good as mine on which is the poorer of the regions. Is it the larger population of the Sub-Saharan region or the literacy rates? I decided to compress this region further and focus on the West African region which essentially comprises 15 countries.

In 2018 the World Poverty Clock, (WPC)  a digital tool that provides real-time poverty across countries of people who live below the United Nations estimated poverty line of $2 a day, clocked Nigeria as the poverty capital of the world. In 2022, that medal goes to India. But according to this data, Nigeria still has 70 million of its population living in EXTREME poverty, while India has 83 million of its doing the same.

What's the female literacy rate in a country like Nigeria? According to World Bank data for 2018, it is 53% and when you look at the data for all of West Africa it is not promising. Cote d"Ivoire has the highest at 87% from 2019 data. There are 15 countries in the West African block

Literacy rate, adult female (% of females ages 15 and above) -WEST AFRICA.

Country                                          Most recent year                    Most recent value     Population (2022)

Benin                                                        2018                                       31                         12,123,200

Burkina Faso                                             2018                                     31                           20,903,273

Cabo Verde                                                2015                                     82                               555,986

Chad                                                           2016                                     14                           16.43 million

Cote d'Ivoire                                               2019                                      87                          26,378,274

The Gambia                                                 2015                                     42                             2,416,668

Ghana                                                          2018                                      74                          31,072,940

Guinea                                                         2018                                      28                          13,132,796

Guinea Bissau                                              2014                                     31                              1.968,001

Liberia                                                          2017                                     34                              5,057,681

Mali                                                               2020                                     22                           20,250,833

Mauritania                                                     2017                                     43                             4,649,658

Niger                                                              2018                                     27                           24,206,644

Nigeria                                                            2018                                     53                      206,139,589

Senegal                                                           2017                                     40                          16,743,927

Sierra Leone                                                    2018                                    35                             7,976,983

Togo                                                                 2019                                    56                             8,278,728

While many of these data are not for 2022, it shows that out of 15 countries in the West African Subregion, and economically the ECOWAS group (Note that Mauritania is not part of the economic group of West Africa) ONLY 5 countries have female literacy rates above 50%. the general literacy rate for the males will not be much different either.

Now, let's look at the poverty rates in these countries.

When you look at the number of those living in extreme poverty in these countries, it does not paint a pretty picture. I followed the World Poverty Clock and while the majority of the Sub Sahara region has troubling statistics, West Africa was really bad. 

I have already highlighted Nigeria with 70 million of its 206 million population living in extreme poverty. The bigger the population, the poorer a country is especially when female literacy rates are low and of course, the poor management of available resources as is common in many West African countries.

 Over the past couple of months, we have seen several coups in West African countries like Chad, Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso. There is a common thread, literacy rates are lower in these countries and poverty rates are high. Although we cannot forget the deep-rooted issues of corruption of the political elite and an environment of unaccountability. But literacy does play a big part in the overall decision-making of the populace.

Issues in West Africa are hydra-headed, but if we start educating the women, then we can better manage issues like population growth as an educated woman takes better responsibility for her reproductive health and has fewer children. Plus having her own income increases the family income. An educated woman makes better decisions economically, for her family and this is a foundation for the country