NTUS reveals stark gender gap in unpaid care work— NBS
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Abdullateef Fowewe
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has unveiled groundbreaking findings from Nigeria’s inaugural Nigeria Time Use Survey (NTUS) 2024 on Monday, spotlighting deep disparities in how men and women spend their days.
Described as “a significant milestone as the country’s first stand-alone effort to systematically measure how individuals allocate their time across paid and unpaid work, personal care, and leisure activities,” the survey offers “robust empirical evidence to inform gender-sensitive policy design, development planning, and the implementation of global and national commitments, particularly to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5.4.1 on unpaid care and domestic work.”
Key data shows that Nigerians aged 15 and above devoted an average of 12.5% of their day—about 3 hours—to unpaid domestic and care work in 2024.
The gender divide is stark, “Women dedicated 21.0% of their day (5 hours) to unpaid domestic and care work, while men spent 4.1% of their day (roughly 1 hour).”
These insights could reshape policies on work-life balance and gender equity, urging leaders to address the uneven burden on women.
