Women in the Shadow: Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Gender-Responsive Procurement Reforms in Nigeria

Amid Nigeria’s drive for digital governance, gender-responsive public procurement remains shadowed by exclusion and bias. This paper pioneers a transformative lens AI for Intersectional Inclusion to reimagine how artificial intelligence can dismantle systemic barriers that silence women in government contracting. Moving beyond efficiency, the analysis fuses feminist technology theory with policy analytics to explore how algorithms, when ethically trained, can expose invisibility, build equity, and rewrite access for marginalized women. Drawing on lessons from Kenya, India, and Nigeria’s emerging procurement systems, it identifies pathways where AI shifts from being a neutral tool to a justice-driven instrument of representation. The study offers a governance blueprint that embeds fairness, transparency, and human-centered participation into digital procurement reform. Ultimately, it argues that inclusive AI is not a futuristic ideal but a present necessity capable of transforming Nigeria’s procurement ecosystem into one where visibility births opportunity.