VIOLENCE AGAINST YOUNG WOMEN IN INFORMAL CROSS-BORDER TRADING IN SOUTH-WEST NIGERIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND POVERTY REDUCTION

Nigerian women, through history, actively participate in the social, economic and political development of their societies. This is particularly true of women in southern Nigeria, especially Yoruba women. Women traders working in the informal sector are often subject to harassment and extortion at the border. These constraints undermine their economic activities. Women are more readily denied access to key trader networks than men. Time-consuming trade procedures and documentary requirements impinge more heavily on women, given the time they need for their household duties. And women working to produce exportable goods and services are typically less able than men to get the inputs and materials that would raise their productivity and allow them to compete better in overseas markets. A major setback for women in crossborder trade is violence. This ranges from rape and other forms of sexual abuse, theft, robbery to seizure of goods. This paper therefore, examined the incidence of violence against young women in informal cross-border trading in South- West Nigeria and its implications for economic development and poverty reduction, relying purely on secondary sources of data and relevant sociological theories. Findings in this project will bring to the fore, the constraints to the success of economic activities of young women and the effects on wealth creation and poverty reduction in South-West, Nigeria