Nigeria’s unemployment rate rose to 23.1 percent at the end of Q3 2018, up from 18.8 percent in the corresponding quarter in 2017, the National Bureau of Statistics said today (Wedneday, 19 December 2018).
The unemployment figure rose to 20.9 million at the end of the period, from 16 million in the corresponding quarter a year earlier, according to figures released today by the NBS on its website. This implies that the number of jobless Nigerians jumped by 30 percent or 4.9 million within one year.
The NBS put Nigeria’s available labour force at 90.47 million, out of which 20.93 million or 23.1 percent are unemployed. Latest estimates by the National Population Commission put the population of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, at 198 million.
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The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari came into office in May 2015 with a pledge to create jobs as part of its plans to resuscitate the Nigerian economy. Since its inauguration it has churned out figures of jobs created in different sectors, chiefly agriculture.
Controversy over new jobs
The release of the unemployment data, which some people say was delayed, was presaged by controversy. First, there were rumours that the release was being delayed in order not use a bad unemployment report to hurt the electoral chances of the ruling All Progressives Congress at next year’s general elections.
A new twist was added to the controversy this week when a presidential spokesman stirred the hornet’s nest on Monday, as he claimed that the NBS omitted 12 million jobs that were created in the informal sector.
Garba Shehu, the senior special assistant on media and publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, made the allegation on Channels Television’s SunriseDaily, when asked about high job losses that the present administration is facing, according to reports by the NBS. Shehu claimed the job creation figures were made known by Kale last week, while addressing the federal cabinet.
“The NBS chief had addressed the federal cabinet and made the admission himself that they had concentrated analysis on white-collar jobs and they had not taken cognisance of job creation in the area of agriculture. The Rice Producers Association of Nigeria and Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria made open the claim and nobody has challenged them, that they had created 12 million jobs. When he finished addressing the cabinet last week, the government asked the DG of NBS to go out there and tell the public,” Shehu said.
However, Yemi Kale, Statistician-General and head of the NBS, denied the claim by Garba, insisting that neither he, nor the NBS had ever given that information to anyone.
“Assuming what you claim was said was actually said, then I make it very clear that neither the Statistician-General nor NBS ever made any such admission at any time to anybody,” Kale said in a tweet on Tuesday.
Government’s position on the activities of the NBS has drawn more criticism, with the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), accusing the president of attempting to “doctor” the unemployment figure.
“The directive of President Muhammadu Buhari to the Statistician-General of Nigeria, Yemi Kale, to change the data on unemployment in the country to create impression of massive job creation by his administration is a horrible corruption,” the PDP said in a tweet on Wednesday.
“There are two things that this unemployment figure has done for Yemi Kale and NBS,” Johnson Chukwu, CEO, Cowry Asset Management Limited,” said by phone to BusinessDay today. “It has saved them from embarrassment and damage to its reputation.
“You don’t need to be an economist or statistician to know that the level of unemployment has increased. If someone tells you that there are 12 million jobs that have been created, it means that the person does not know what he is taking about,” Chukwu added.
Micheal Ani and Bunmi Bailey
