Labour ministry lied, our methodology for measuring unemployment rate confirms with global standard

THE  National Bureau of Statistics has refuted    Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment’s claim that it is churning out‘confusing’ employment statistics

The Bureau said, contrary to Ministry of Labour and Employment’s claim, its methodology for measuring the rate of unemployment in the country conforms with global standards.

The minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, had two days ago, while receiving the leadership of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management in his office, said, “We have a virtual meeting of the National Economic Advisory Council with the World Bank to look at Nigeria’s modalities for employment statistics data collection.

“There has been a little confusion there as to the accuracy of data generated by the NBS. So, we want to align everything tomorrow. The World Bank says the NBS methodology doesn’t conform with the global standard, especially the ILO (International Labour Organisation) format of arriving at such Employment Index.”

But replying to Ngige’s claim today on its official Twitter handle @nigerianstat, the NBS said, “The World Bank has denied making any such statement and rather together with the economic advisory committee affirmed its confidence, commendation, support and close working relationship with NBS. The World Bank can be contacted if in doubt.”

In line with its statutory mandate to provide government and policymakers with reliable and timely information, the National Bureau of Statistics which computes and disseminates the labour force statistic, had announced in March that Nigeria’s unemployment rate increased to 33.3% in Q4 2020 from 27.1% in Q2 2020.

According to the statistics over 23 million Nigerians are now jobless.