FG, World Bank meet over NBS ‘confusing’ employment statistics

THE Federal Government and the World Bank will hold a virtual meeting on Thursday to discuss the modalities used by the National Bureau of Statistics  in gathering data for employment statistics.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, disclosed this Wednesday while receiving the leadership of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management in his office.

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

Breaking down the statistics the NBS said the number of persons in the economically active or working age population (15 – 64 years of age) during the reference period of the survey, Q4, 2020 was 122,049,400.

The figure  is 4.3% higher than the figure recorded in Q2, 2020, which was 116,871,186.

The announcement by NBC was greeted with outrage as some eminent Nigerians expressed concern about the revelation.

Opposition parties also attributed the development to unviable policies of the Buhari administration.

The statistics also informed the report of StatiSense, a data technology company,  which ranked Nigeria third on a list of countries with the highest unemployment rate globally.

But reacting to the unemployment rate yesterday Ngige 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 (Thursday). The World Bank says the NBS methodology doesn’t conform to the global standard, especially the ILO format of arriving at such Employment Index.”

Ngige who described the meeting as very important, recalled that he had on several occasions queried the employment statistics released by the NBS.

Regarding the review of labour laws in the country, the minister said, “Progress has been made and it is now at the validation stage” and expressed gratitude to CIPM for being part of the process

“On your (CIPM) request to play more active role; it is the more, the merrier. We will be happy to have you on board, as you are part and parcel of our Ministry. The institute has grown and will continue to grow. For us in the Ministry, our doors remain open whenever you want us to assist,” the minister said.