“…In particular, the increasing recognition of gender roles in achieving economic growth and development has become topical and this is evidenced in the inclusion of gender-specific goals in the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2 as well as the increased focus of global development community and multilateral agencies on the issue of gender inequality (OECD, 2020, 2015; World Bank, 2012Bank, , 2018IMF, 2013IMF, , 2016. Following the increasing wave of both theoretical and empirical analyses of gender roles in promoting economic growth and sustainable development, the inclusion of women in economic activities has been associated with poverty alleviation (Nadim & Nurlukman, 2017; OECD Forum, 2015; Jones and Chant, 2009; World Bank, 2007) improved household welfare (Jabeen et al, 2020;Samer et al, 2017;Ojo and Wurani, 2013), improvement in child education and nutrition (Sidh & Basu, 2011;Afridi, Mukhopadhyay and Sahoo, 2016), diversity in workforce (Verick, 2018;Ziman, 2013), decline in domestic violence (Lenze & Klasen, 2016;Schuler, Lenzi, Nazneen and Bates, 2013;Mathus and Slavov, 2012) and economic and environmental sustainability. Faced with the twin problems of poverty and gender inequality, gender economic inclusion is critical for Africa and the subregion of Saharan Africa.…”