BREAKING: Nigeria unemployment rate rises to 33%, second highest in the world
- Over 23 million people are now actively jobless in Nigeria
- This is according to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics
- The Nigerian economy has witnessed a rapid decline in the last five years
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A report by Bloomberg indicates that unemployment in Nigeria surged to the second-highest on a global list of countries.
According to the report, the jobless rate in Nigeria rose to 33.3% in the three months through December 2020, according to a report published by the National Bureau of Statistics on its website on Monday, March 15.
That’s up from 27.1% in the second quarter of 2020, the last period for which the agency released labor-force statistics.
The report further revealed that a third of the 69.7 million-strong labour force in Nigeria either did nothing or worked for less than 20 hours a week, making them unemployed.
Source: Twitter
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Nigeria surpassed South Africa on a list of 82 countries whose unemployment rates are tracked by Bloomberg. Namibia leads the list with 33.4%.
Nigeria’s jobless rate has more than quadrupled over the last five years as the economy went through two recessions under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
Experts say the number of people looking for jobs will keep rising as population growth continues to outpace output expansion in Nigeria.
More worrisome, Nigeria is expected to be the world’s third-most-populous country by 2050, with over 300 million people, according to projections by the United Nations.
In a related development, unemployed Nigerians who previously applied for the N-Power Batch C can now continue the process as the federal government has communicated its readiness to accept another batch of the beneficiaries.
The last set of N-Power beneficiaries exited the government intervention programme last year, but since then little has been made known about the next batch.
With the unemployment rate in the country rising astronomically, the clamour for N-Power became more intense hence the government's decision.
Meanwhile, as the Nigerian economy continues to suffer a decline, governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari for financial assistance for their respective states.
The governors issued the plea after a marathon 5-hour meeting held in Abuja, the national capital on Thursday, March 11.
Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto state, who addressed journalists after the meeting, said the move became necessary to save their states.
Their states, Tambuwal noted, required huge financial commitments that only the federal government can provide.
Jerrywright Ukwu is an Abuja-based senior political/defence correspondent at Legit.ng. He is a graduate of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos and the International Institute of Journalism in Abuja. He is also a member of the Nigeria Union of Journalists. He spends his leisure-time reading history books. He can be reached via email at jerrywright39@yahoo.com.
Source: Legit.ng
