Women are the primary drivers of agricultural value addition in Sub-Saharan Africa, yet their economic potential remains stifled by systemic barriers. This study investigates the resource and institutional constraints limiting women’s participation in groundnut value addition in North-Western Nigeria. Using a cross-sectional survey of 142 female processors and farmers, the study initially attempted dimensionality reduction via Principal Component Analysis (PCA). However, a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of .371 indicated a lack of shared variance, revealing that these constraints operate as distinct, orthogonal formative indicators rather than reflective latent constructs. Consequently, a theoretical composite approach was adopted. Descriptive analysis identified lack of access to credit (M = 4.67, SD = 0.555) and market access problems (M = 4.39, SD = 0.673) as the most severe barriers. Furthermore, institutional support deficits, particularly in extension services (M = 4.32, SD = 0.820), compound these resource limitations. The findings challenge the conventional methodological assumption that agricultural constraints can be neatly clustered into single latent factors. Instead, they demonstrate that vulnerabilities are formative and multi-causal. The study concludes that targeted, collateral-free microfinance and the deployment of gender-sensitive extension services are critical to dismantling these distinct, intersecting barriers, thereby enhancing women’s economic resilience in rural agri-food systems.