Nigeria’s unemployment rate as at the second quarter of 2020 is 27.1% indicating that about 21,764,614 (21.7 million) Nigerians remain unemployed.

Nigeria’s unemployment and underemployment rate (28.6%) is a combined 55.7%. This means the total number of Nigerians who are unemployed or underemployed as at 2020 Q2.

This is contained in a recently released unemployment data report published by the National Bureau of Statistics. Nigeria’s unemployment rate was 23.1% in Q3 2018 confirming it increased by 4% points between then and the second quarter of 2020.

Key highlights The number of persons in the economically active or working-age population (15 – 64 years of age) during the reference period of the survey, Q2, 2020 was 116,871,186.

The number of persons in the labour force (i.e. people within ages 15 -64, who are able and willing to work) was estimated to be 80,291,894. This was 11.3% less than the number persons in Q3, 2018. Of this number, those within the age bracket of 25-34 were highest, with 23,328,460 or 29.1% of the labour force.

The total number of people in employment (i.e. people with jobs) during the reference period was dwellers, it rose to 31.5% from 22.8%, while the rate among urban dwellers rose to 23.2% from 58,527,276.

Of this number, 35,585,274 were full-time employed (i.e. worked 40+ hours per week), while 22,942,003 were under-employed (i.e. working between 20-29 hours per week). This figure is 15.8% less than the people in employment in Q3, 2020 The unemployment rate during the reference period, Q2, 2020 was 27.1%, up from the 23.1% recorded in Q3, 2018. The underemployment rate increased from 20.1% in Q3, 2018 to 28.6%.

For the period under review, Q2, 2020, the unemployment rate among young people (15-34years) was 34.9%, up from 29.7%, while the rate of underemployment for the same age group rose to 28.2% from 25.7% in Q3, 2018. These rates were the highest when compared to other age groupings.

The data is coming after nearly two years when the last data was published. The bureau last published jobs data in the third quarter of 2018 citing funding as a major challenge.

Key Take-aways Nigeria’s youth remain the hardest hit by unemployment with over 13.9 million people aged between 15 and 34 years unemployed.

The data also shows 7.6 million of this subset did nothing.

Women also continue to bear the brunch of bad economy with about 12.2 million out of jobs from the 27 million currently unemployed.

Graduates and post graduates combined made up about 2.9 million of the total Nigerians that are unemployed. In a surpising data, out of the 35.5 million Nigerians that are fully employed, 28.8 million of them never attended school (6.29 million) or did not have a tertiary education (22.5).

In fact, most fully employed people in Nigeria with SSS (Senior Secondary School certificates) are a whopping 13.2 million.

Source: https://nairametrics.com/2020/08/14/breaking-nigeria-unemployment-rate-jumps-to-27-1/
August 14, 2020 By Samuel Oyekanmi He (Adegbite) further explained that “The experts will come and audit, they will bring in management under the same contractor, that is the essence of the government to government cooperation, they will bring in management the essence of that is that is to manage the plant so that the plant pays back the loan without recourse to the country.”

However, the Minister added that “President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the Nigerian government will not spend any money on Ajaokuta again so Ajaokuta is making a business case which has been accepted and once it is resuscitated and producing it can pay back its loan.

“So the whole essence is that they will build and operate it for a while upon agreed terms and at the end of the term when the loan is paid with interest, the plant will be reverted back to Nigeria and at that time a decision will be taken on who will manage it.”

On funding Ajaokuta Steel Company project the Minister also made it known that “The funding is coming from two sources, the Russian export center, which is a Russian sort of NEXIM Bank it is called the Russian Export Centre, they are providing $450 million for the project and of course from the Afrexim Bank will be providing $1 billion, so we have a total of $1.45 billion.

“But the whole essence is that the Russian technical experts will come, do the audit which will lead to them giving us an exact figure of how much it will cost to resuscitate Ajaokuta and National Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO), the two are tied together and once this is done, of course, there will be negotiations, we won’t just take whatever they give us, there will be negotiations and at the end of the day, a sum will be agreed and contract formed and that is the basis that we will proceed.”

He also explained that based on the bilateral agreement between the two Presidents, the Russians will bring the experts to fix the plant. “The Russians will bring the experts to fix the plant, but I must say at this point that we are working on what we call local context, right now we proposed 60 per cent local content, everything that is required in Ajaokuta and NIOMCO that is obtainable in Nigeria must be sourced from Nigeria, we don’t want everyone to come here and dump everything on us, only those things that we cannot provide can be brought from outside so right now we are at that stage of 60/40 of 60 per cent local content and 40 per cent foreign”, he stated.

On the protracted issue of miners having access to the money meant for their operations at the Bank of Industry, BoI, the Minister explained that it is only when miners form cooperatives that they can access the loan at BoI and not as individuals.

“On the aspect of the artisanal and small scale formalization because the Nigerian landscape is dominated by these people so the aspect of their formalization is in the process so at the last count about 300 or 400 cooperatives bodies have been formed.

“So it is an ongoing process, these groups are being encouraged to access the funds we have at the Bank of Industry, BoI because it is easier for the people in the cooperatives to get the loan than individuals.

“The problem is the individual inability to secure the loans and when the loan is accessed most of them will not be given in cash but equipment, it is all an ongoing process”, he added.

Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/07/russian-govt-to-carry-out-technical-audit-on-ajaokuta-steel-coy-adegbite/