Tag: Unemployment

  • Nigeria’s Unemployment Rate To Rise To 41% In 2023- KPMG

    Nigeria’s Unemployment Rate To Rise To 41% In 2023- KPMG

    Global audit and tax advisory firm, KPMG, has projected that Nigeria’s unemployment rate is expected to rise to 40.6% as compared to 2022’s 37.7%.

    KPMG detailed this forecast in its International Global Economic Outlook report – H1 2023 on Tuesday, where it stated that “unemployment is expected to continue to be a major challenge in 2023 due to the limited investment by the private sector, low industrialization, and slower than required economic growth and consequently the inability of the economy to absorb the 4-5 million new entrants into the Nigerian job market every year”.

    The report also revealed in part that there are expectations for GDP to continue to grow at a relatively slow pace of 3% in 2023 owing to the slowdown in economic activity that typically characterizes periods of political transition in Nigeria.

    Furthermore, the spillover from an expected slowdown in the global economy in 2023 and its trade and financial flow implications are expected to drag
    on GDP.

    “Additionally, growth will be negatively affected by the Naira Redesign Policy introduced in Q4 2022 and Q1 2023 and its implications on key non-oil sectors like manufacturing, trade, accommodation and food services, transportation, and other services, further slowing down overall GDP growth in 2023,” the report read.

    On the resurgence of major aspects of the economy, it forecasted that the telecommunications, trade services, as well as the oil sector, are expected to see recoveries, on account of measures being taken to tackle security issues.

  • Youth Unemployment Major Cause Of Insecurity In North-East – Peter Obi

    Youth Unemployment Major Cause Of Insecurity In North-East – Peter Obi

    The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi says the vast number of unemployed youths in the North-East region is the biggest contributing factor to insecurity in the region, as thousands of youths wake up every morning without food or shelter.

    Obi stated this on Monday when he met with some North-East stakeholders in Abuja.

    According to him, with the enormous amount of arable land in the North-East, the region has the potential not only to feed the country but also produce enough cash crops for export. He pledged that his administration will bring that to reality if he wins the presidential elections next year.

    He said insecurity will be a thing of the past when idle youths become engaged in legal activities, ranging from agriculture to commerce which will ensure the country moves from consumption to production.

    Obi said, “Youth unemployment is nearing 50 per cent, so you have millions of youth in their productive age doing nothing, not knowing where the next meal will come from. With that situation, you are going to have crises; crisis of insecurity, crisis of banditry, crisis of kidnapping.

    “What I and Datti (Baba-Ahmed) are promising you is number one; that we have the best combination, the best experience to start tackling issue of security and I will say this, hold us responsible. Let nobody tell you we cannot solve issue of insecurity in Nigeria, it can be stopped and done very quickly.

    “We want to unite Nigeria, we want to see Nigerians being proud of their country again. We want to remove Nigeria from where it is today, from consumption to production and when you do that, you start pulling people out of poverty.”

  • Unemployment: NDE Trains 50 Youths On Entrepreneurship Strategies In Kogi

    Unemployment: NDE Trains 50 Youths On Entrepreneurship Strategies In Kogi

    From Noah Ocheni, Lokoja

    The Director General of National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Mallam Abubakar Nuhu Fikpo said the Directorate has commenced a 5-day training and sensitization on entrepreneurship strategies for 50 unemployed youths in Kogi state.

    The Director-General who was represented by the Kogi State NDE Coordinator, Mallam Abubakar Zakari, at the flag off ceremony reiterated the resolve of the federal government to lift over 100 million unemployed youths in Nigeria out of poverty.

    The training is aimed at providing the trainees with technical knowledge on how to write a bankable feasibility study, mimic market situation and how to raise start-up capital.

    The Director-General urged the trainees to make good use of the opportunity offered them by government to better their livelihood.

    Mrs. Aliyu Salma Zakari while responding on behalf of the trainees, praised the NDE for its untiring task to fight the monster called unemployment in the country.

    She urged her colleagues to take the training very serious inorder to add value to their respective homes and the nation at large.

  • Embrace Artisan Schemes To Beat Unemployment In Nigeria – Comrade Akor

    Embrace Artisan Schemes To Beat Unemployment In Nigeria – Comrade Akor

    From Noah Ocheni, Lokoja

    A Director in the Kogi state ministry of agriculture, Comrade Gabriel Akor Over the weekend charged Students of post primary institutions to embrace artisan schemes to reduce unemployment saga in the society.

    Comrade Akor gave the charge at the end of the year get-together of the Ome Progressive Brothers held at Lokoja over the weekend.

    He pointed out that the era where graduates scouts round for white scholar jobs is over stressing that early counseling of pupils towards their future endeavours should be paramount amongst parents.

    “Tutoring students to engage themselves in different learning fields of their choices after school hours is the solution to unemployment that many graduates are facing in the society today.” He stressed.

    Earlier, the Chairman of the Ome Progressive Brothers, Engr. Joseph Omejo who was represented by his Vice, Mr. Boniface Omakoji called for the peaceful coexistence among the people to enable development triumph in their community.

    He pointed out that it is through unionism that people can speak in one voice adding that efforts must be intensified to give the union the desired financial support to justify the progressive status.

    In his remarks, the Chairman of Egume Ome Descendants Union, (EODU) Lokoja branch, Comrade Noah Ocheni (JP), enjoined other related clubs from Egume to rally round the Umbrella body of the Union (EODU) to enable it achieve its set objectives.

    Ocheni therefore urged members of the union to embark on small scale business to enable the family strive in the face of this dwindling economy in Nigeria today.

  • CBN Develops Scheme To Reduce Graduate Unemployment

    CBN Develops Scheme To Reduce Graduate Unemployment

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday said it was developing a Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme (TIES) to re-orientate, train and finance entrepreneurship ideas by Nigerian graduates.

    The CBN Governor, Dr Godwin Emefiele, stated this in a goodwill message to the 35th Conference of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, holding at the Kano State University of Science and Technology (KUST), Wudil.

    Represented by Dr Adebowale Olabimtan-Idowu, CBN Deputy Director, Development Finance, Emefiele said there was need to re-orientate youths from waiting for white collar jobs to entrepreneurship.

    He said that the scheme was designed to support the development of entrepreneurial mindsets and culture, through the introduction of a platform that provides seamless access to affordable finance by graduates.
    It would also assist in creating employment for many youths graduating from various institutions of higher learning in the country annually, he added.

    “An estimated 600,000 graduates from our tertiary institutions enter the labour market annually, after participating in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme, seeking the already thinned out white collar jobs.
    “The situation has contributed significantly to the rising youth unemployment across the country,” he said.
    Emefiele said that the proposed scheme would also provide a platform for building digital skills relevant to Nigeria’s broader developmental goals.
    He explained that efforts were ongoing aimed at addressing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on production sectors and dwindling oil revenues in the country.
    “Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) portend great opportunities for addressing these gaps and accelerating economic growth by leveraging our vibrant youth population,” he said.

  • Ban On Twitter Will Further Worsen 33% Unemployment Rate – PDP Governors

    Ban On Twitter Will Further Worsen 33% Unemployment Rate – PDP Governors

    Governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday reacted to the Federal Government’s ban on Twitter lamenting that it will further worsen and increase the unemployment rate in the country.

    The governors disclosed this in a communique jointly issued at end of the meeting held in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital.

    “The meeting examined the suspension of Twitter from operating in Nigeria and condemned the personalised reasons given for the action. The mere ego of Mr. President is not enough for such a drastic action that deprives millions of Nigerians of such an affordable means of expression and communication. We hope that this is not a harbinger or early warning signs of descent into dictatorship.

    “This will further worsen Nigeria’s 33% unemployment rate which is the highest in the world, improve Nigeria’s ranking as the country with the second-highest poverty rate in the entire world, all of which happened under APC’s unfortunate stewardship.”

    The governors consequently requested Mr President to review the suspension of Twitter operations in Nigeria in the national interest.

    Speaking concerning social media regulation, the governors said it can only be done within the existing laws on the subject and should not be used as an attempt to punish or gag Nigerians from enjoying constitutionally guaranteed rights.

    “Nigerian youths do not have adequate access to employment and a lot of Nigerians rely on Twitter for their livelihood, businesses, and self-employment,” the PDP governors added.

  • Unemployment, Underemployment and Related Challenges

    Unemployment, Underemployment and Related Challenges

    By Adefolarin A. Olamilekan

    Understandably, unemployment and underemployment remain a global problem but Nigeria is having an appropriate portion of it. Incidentally, Nigeria as a post colonial nation has experienced many of the problems common to other nation. For instance, it began its independent existence in an enviable position of having proven reserves of oil and gas that it currently earned between $18billion and $30 billion US dollar yearly. Moreso, it had a relatively developed infrastructure associated with primary industry development and fully functioning administration bureaucracy at independence. However, its subsequent history is one of economic difficulty, corruption, political violence, insecurity, growing poverty and inequalities amongst it citizenry. Nigeria is African largest country with an estimated population of over 200 million and an average annual population growth of 2.98 per cent.  Arguably, one of such economic difficulties is unemployment, a situation where the Nigerian state has not been able to grasp this obtrusive phenomenon.

    With the depressing figures released recently by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which stated that the computed national unemployment rate rose from 27.1% in Q2, 2020 to 33.3% in Q4, 2020, while the underemployment rate decreased from 28.6% to 22.8%. Meanwhile, a combination of both unemployment and underemployment rate for the reference period gave a figure of 56.1%. Thus, this means 33.3% of the nation labour force pointing to 23,187,389 persons either did nothing or worked for less than 20 hours a week.
    Interestly, what constitutes employment, unemployment and underemployment may be necessary here in terms of it meaning. For instance, a person is regarded as employed if he/she is engaged in the production of goods and services. In other word such a person is contributing to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in a legitimate manner, which is a component of the national accounts and receives any form or amount of compensation for that activity. Coincidentally, these can cause fluctuations if the economically active and labour forces populations at any given time are not properly manage.

    Although, there is no universal definition of unemployment as various countries adopt definitions to suit their local priorities. The International Labour Organization (ILO) definition is handy here as it covers persons aged between 15-64 available for work, actively seeking work, but were unable to find work. Yet, all countries use the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) definition, or a variant of it to compute unemployment on the basis of situation analysis and findings. To a great extent this may have provide the input to fathom the meaning of unemployment in Nigeria which indicate persons available for work and looking for job, but were unable to find one within the age aforementioned. For this reason, the unemployment rate is calculated as a percentage of the number of unemployed persons in the labour force.

    Accordingly, underemployment occurs if a person works less than full time 40 hours but work at least 20 hours on average a week. In addition, underemployment also mean that if a person work full time but are engaged in an activity that under-utilizes their skills, time, and educational qualifications..

    Consequently, it is imperative to remind ourselves that the meaning of unemployment, underemployment or employment from international or local perspective is not a function of the amount of wages earned nor it is a function of job satisfaction. That is why Karl Marx opines that, workers exchange their labour power for money, and in addition this exchange takes place at a certain ratio.

    Numerous factors may be blamed for the prevalence of unemployment and underemployment in Nigeria. Poor infrastructure, stagnation in the real sector due to a hostile investment climate and general business depression in the private sector. For instance, available statistics reveal that in recent years, over 150 multinational industries have divested from the Nigerian economy. Many more are planning pulling out. In the same vein, government’s multiple tax and tariff, is obstacles to some companies to produce locally as it is more lucrative to import and market products.

    Adding to this, many of the cottage industries are practically dead, many medium and small scale enterprises often described as the real engine for job creation have been folding up. Most impacted is the textile industry with over 200 firms closing shop. The inexplicable hike in the price of cement and other building materials and abandoned construction projects which are the traditional employment creation avenues particularly during recession, are not helping the situation. Similarly, the particular problem of poor electricity supply, poor road network, inadequate physical security and the high cost of finance are some of the factors that diffused SMEs, render, artisans’ jobless and the real sector odious.

    Furthermore, is poor quality and dysfunctional educational system that has created an army of unemployable graduates. Reasons had been deficient school curricula and failure of our educational institutions providing students with appropriate skills. Special importance on university education at the abandonment of technical and vocational education is another missing link in our system.

    The way forward. A policy to address unemployment and underemployment in Nigeria is not far fetch if the government will not pay lip service to it. Sincerity of purpose on the part of our policy makers as well as all stakeholders is the driver to get it rights. Several interventions from the government currently and in the past have been deplored. However, it is unclear to what extent it reduced unemployment rate. Perhaps it time to rethink and rejig our policy direction on employment creation. Magnificently, we must appreciate the availability of data as lack of data makes it difficult for policymakers to tackle unemployment, underemployment and related economy challenges in Nigeria.

  • Over 23 million Nigerians Jobless as unemployment rate hits 33.3% – NBS

    Over 23 million Nigerians Jobless as unemployment rate hits 33.3% – NBS

    Nigeria’s unemployment rate rose from 27.1 per cent in the second quarter of 2020 to 33.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2020, the latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics revealed on Monday.

    The NBS stated in its report on ‘Labour force Statistics: Unemployment and underemployment report- Abridged labour force survey under COVID-19 (Q4, 2020) that this translates to 23.19 million unemployed people.

    Part of the report read, “During the reference period, the computed national unemployment rate rose from 27.1 per cent in Q2, 2020 to 33.3 per cent in Q4, 2020, while the underemployment rate decreased from 28.6 per cent to 22.8 per cent.

    “A combination of both the unemployment and underemployment rate for the reference period gave a figure of 56.1 per cent.

    “This means that 33.3 per cent of the labour force in Nigeria or 23,187,389 persons either did nothing or worked for less than 20 hours a week, making them unemployed by our definition in Nigeria.

    “This is an additional 1,422,772 persons from the number in that category in Q2, 2020.

    “Using the international definition of unemployment, the rate was computed to be 17.5 per cent.”

  • Another protest looms if unemployment persists – Senate president warns FG

    Another protest looms if unemployment persists – Senate president warns FG

    The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has warned that another protest in the country looms if political office holders and policymakers continue to pay lip service to the issues of unemployment.

    Ahmad gave the warning when the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Sabo Nanono, led top officials of his ministry to defend its 2021 budget before the Senate Committee on Agriculture on Monday, November 9.

    He challenged his colleagues in positions of authorities to factor youth employment and empowerment into the 2021 budget so as to escape another round of #EndSARS protests.

    “Recently, we had protests by some of our youths. Some of them, very genuine, were seeking the attention of leaders and they got the attention. So, our budget, especially for 2021, should be mindful of what we do to provide employment opportunities for these youths.

    They demonstrated, they protested because they could do so. There are so many other people who may not be youthful but are also in the same need. They didn’t protest.

    Let us meet them where they are, we don’t want to wait until they also start to grumble or protest we should be proactive.” he said

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  • Popular comedian, AY reveals why most Nigerian youths are lazy

    Popular comedian, AY reveals why most Nigerian youths are lazy

    Nigerian comedian and entertainer, Ayo Makun widely known as AY have revealed that the laziness of most youth in Nigeria is due to the tragedy of unemployment in the country.

    According to AY via his Twitter handle insisted that one’s situation determines their priorities and the laziness of the Nigerian youth spurs out of a system that does not work.

    He wrote;

    “The laziness of most Nigerian youth is caused by the tragedy of Unemployment. Nothing is more heartbreaking than graduating with a good degree with no job to do or finding yourself in a system of governance that doesn’t work. Your situation sometimes determines your priorities”