On 6 and 7 October 2026, RFLD joined civil society organisations, national institutions, media and technology practitioners in Abuja for the WLICT National Consultation and Planning Workshop on Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence. RFLD was represented by its Nigeria Country Representative, Simbiat Bakare. This article explains why the issue matters so much for Nigeria and for Africa, what RFLD brought to the table, and which tools anyone can use today to prevent and respond to online abuse.
A national conversation that was overdue
Women Leadership in the Public ICT Sector (WLICT) is a 36-month Team Europe initiative, implemented by a consortium of European cooperation agencies with Expertise France among the partners. It supports women’s leadership in digital governance and practical action against technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TF-GBV) in several partner countries. The Abuja consultation opened the national planning phase for Nigeria. Its conclusions will shape the activities supported in the country in the coming months.
For RFLD, the timing mattered. Nigeria has one of the largest online populations in Africa, and its young women are among the most active users of social media on the continent. The same platforms that give them a voice, a market and a network also expose them to harassment, threats and the theft of their images. Until now, there has been no shared national plan to deal with this harm. Abuja was a first step towards one.
What we mean by technology-facilitated gender-based violence
TF-GBV covers any act of violence against a person because of their gender that is committed, assisted or made worse by digital tools. It includes cyberbullying and online harassment, stalking through phones and apps, the sharing of intimate images without consent, doxxing (publishing someone’s private details to expose them to attack), impersonation, sextortion and coordinated campaigns to silence women who speak in public. Artificial intelligence now adds new risks, from fake sexual images made in seconds to automated waves of abuse.
The harm is real even when it starts on a screen. It follows women home, into their workplaces and into their families. It pushes them to close accounts, to stop speaking and sometimes to leave jobs or public office. For a full list of terms, see our glossary of technology-facilitated gender-based violence.
Why this issue matters now
Many women are affected, and few report
RFLD’s regional report, Online violence against women in West and Central Africa 2026, brings together surveys, police statistics, laws and documented cases from 17 countries. It recalls that the only survey covering the whole region, run by Internet Sans Frontières in 2019 across 18 countries, found that 45.5% of women on social media had experienced online gender-based violence. Only 15% had reported it, and a further 28.5% changed the way they used social media after the abuse. Plan International’s 2020 survey of girls and young women, which included Nigeria, found that 54% of African respondents had experienced online harassment.
Low reporting is a trap. When women do not report, the harm does not appear in official statistics, and governments can treat it as marginal. The report also notes that no country in the region has a nationally representative prevalence survey on online violence against women. Participants in Abuja said the same about Nigeria: there is no national baseline and no system to track TF-GBV over time.
Women in public life are prime targets
A 2021 study by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the African Parliamentary Union interviewed 224 women from 50 African countries, including 137 parliamentarians. It found that 42% had received threats of death, rape, beating or abduction, mostly through social media. Women journalists, activists and candidates face the same pattern. When abuse drives them offline, democracy loses their voices. This is why the WLICT focus on women’s leadership in the public ICT sector and the fight against TF-GBV belong together.
Caseloads are rising faster than institutions can respond
Where data exists, it shows a sharp increase. Benin recorded more than 6,500 cybercrime complaints in 2025, against about 4,000 in 2024. Côte d’Ivoire’s cybercrime platform recorded 8,132 complaints in 2023, up from 5,302 in 2021. Neither country publishes these figures by sex or by type of offence, so it is impossible to know how many concern violence against women. Nigeria faces the same blind spot.
The law exists in part, but survivors struggle to use it
Nigeria has several laws that can be applied to online abuse: the Cybercrimes Act, the Nigeria Data Protection Act, the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act, consumer protection law and the criminal and penal codes. In practice, survivors often do not know where to report, and police units are not always trained or equipped to investigate. Psychosocial and legal support remains hard to find outside the big cities. Young people and persons with disabilities are often left out of awareness efforts and services.
At continental level, the African Union adopted the Convention on Ending Violence against Women and Girls in February 2025. In May 2026 it had eight signatures and no ratifications, and it needs 15 ratifications to enter into force. The Maputo Protocol, which Nigeria has ratified, already obliges states to protect women from all forms of violence, in private and in public. Read the Protocol in your language, including Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba.
What RFLD brought to Abuja
Simbiat Bakare took part in the group discussions that mapped the obstacles to ending TF-GBV in Nigeria. RFLD’s main message was that the bottlenecks are institutional. Platforms do not have enough measures in place to prevent abuse, and law enforcement too often fails to hold perpetrators to account. Asking women to “be careful online” cannot replace the duty of companies and states to act.
RFLD also joined the thematic working group on the accountability of technology companies, governments and states in protecting women, girls and gender non-conforming people online. The group’s recommendations include:
- mapping the platforms where TF-GBV is most common and the groups most exposed to it;
- reviewing platform policies against Nigeria’s protection laws;
- opening a dialogue with social media companies to identify gaps, and working with them on measures, tools and protocols to prevent and respond to TF-GBV;
- engaging government agencies and diplomatic missions on agreements to reach perpetrators based abroad, since online abuse often crosses borders;
- working with the National Assembly on sanctions for platforms that do not comply.
Finally, RFLD contributed to the design of a steering committee for the national work plan: a small formal group that will oversee priorities and follow the implementation of the recommendations. RFLD proposed that it bring together civil society, government institutions, the media and technology experts, so that each actor answers for its part of the response.
From Abuja to Dakar: one regional agenda
The Abuja consultation was part of a busy month for RFLD on this issue. A week later, at the 89th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Dakar, RFLD took part in a regional dialogue with Expertise France on TF-GBV and human rights, and worked with the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice on an African regional framework against technology-facilitated gender-based violence. RFLD also co-organised a side event on women in politics and online violence.
The link between national and regional work is simple. Platforms operate across borders, and perpetrators often do too. A Nigerian plan will be stronger if it connects with continental standards set by the African Commission and the African Union, and if neighbouring countries learn from each other’s laws and practices.
A toolbox to act today
RFLD has built a set of free resources that survivors, organisations, journalists and officials can use now. All are available on rflgd.org.
If you face online abuse
- Keep evidence. Take screenshots that show the content, the account name, the link and the date. Do not delete messages before you have saved them.
- Report to the platform. Use the reporting tools for harassment, impersonation or intimate images. Many platforms have fast-track forms for non-consensual images.
- Secure your accounts. Change passwords, turn on two-step verification and check which devices are logged in.
- Report to the authorities. In Nigeria, the Cybercrimes Act and the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act can apply. Ask for a written record of your complaint.
- Get support. Contact a women’s organisation, a legal aid service or a health centre. You do not have to face this alone.
Our guide Responding to online violence: a survivor-centred guide in six steps explains each step in more detail for those who support survivors.
RFLD resources on TF-GBV
- Key findings: online violence against women in West and Central Africa, with the full 2026 report in English and French.
- Four myths about online violence against women, and what the data shows.
- The hidden costs of online violence for women’s health and income.
- Seven things governments in the region can do about online violence.
- What works: good practices against online violence in the region.
- Funding the response to online violence: what funders can do.
- Legal Toolkit: Cyber Harassment, a practical guide to the law.
- The African Digital Safety Compendium, for digital security and protection of women human rights defenders.
- Why technology-facilitated violence against women is a human rights issue.
- What is technology-facilitated gender-based violence? A glossary.
Learn online, for free
- Civic Space, Democracy and Digital Advocacy, an online course on advocacy in the digital age.
- Human rights defenders: protecting yourself and taking action in West Africa.
- The Maputo Protocol: understanding and using women’s rights in Africa.
For organisations and institutions
- Name a focal person for online safety and write a simple response protocol for staff and members who are attacked online.
- Record cases in a consistent way, with consent, so that the scale of the problem becomes visible.
- Train police, prosecutors and judges on digital evidence and on the laws that already apply.
- Include persons with disabilities and young people in every awareness campaign, in local languages.
- Ask platforms for clear contacts and response times for urgent cases in Nigeria.
What comes next
Participants will be invited to further workshops and focus groups. Expertise France will take forward the recommendations of civil society and share a report on the outcome. Calls for applications under the WLICT initiative are expected in the coming months, and RFLD encourages women-led organisations in Nigeria to prepare for them.
RFLD will follow the implementation of the recommendations that can be acted on quickly, contribute to the steering committee and bring the voices of its members into the process. In Nigeria, this work goes hand in hand with the launch of the RFLD Nigeria Network, which is now welcoming its founding cohort of member organisations. Online safety will be one of the shared priorities of the network.
The 16 Days of Activism, from 25 November to 10 December, will be another moment to push this agenda. Our 16 Days 2026 campaign kit includes visuals, messages and guidance on how to talk about survivors safely, online and offline.
About RFLD in Nigeria
The Réseau des Femmes Leaders pour le Développement (RFLD) is a pan-African network of 1,143 member organisations in more than 35 countries, with Observer Status N°553 at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. In Nigeria, RFLD works from its Lagos office under the leadership of its Country Representative, Simbiat Bakare. Organisations that want to work with RFLD in Nigeria can write to simbiat.bakare@rflgd.org.
