88% of Nigerians self-employed – NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has stated that 88 per cent of employed Nigerians were primarily self-employed in the second quarter of 2023.

In a report titled ‘Nigerian Labour Force Survey (NLFS)’ released yesterday, the NBS said the remaining 12 per cent identified are primarily engaged as employees, adding that more women are self-employed than men.

The report, which used the new methodology of the 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS), stated that the unemployment rate rose to 4.2 per cent during the period.

NBS said the figure was a marginal increase of 0.1 per cent from 4.1 per cent recorded in Q1 2023.

The report stated that 80.4 per cent of Nigeria’s labour force in the working-age population participated in the survey.

It stated that the unemployment rate by sex among men was 3.5 per cent and among women 5.9 per cent.

“Disaggregation by location, the unemployment rate was 5.9 per cent in urban areas and 2.5 per cent in rural areas.”

For young people, it said the unemployment rate for 15-24-year-olds was 7.2 per cent in Q2 2023.

“Disaggregation by sex, 85.2 percent of employed men were self-employed compared to 91.0 per cent of employed women.”

For the informal employment rate, the figure was 92.7 per cent.

“Like the previous two quarters, the rate of women in informal employment is higher than that of men. Although the informality rate is high across all age groups, younger persons (15-24), and persons above 65 years were more informally employed.

“The rate of informal employment among people living in rural areas is 97.3 per cent while the urban informality rate is estimated at 88 per cent.”

“Educational qualification seems to be negatively associated with informality as findings show that persons with higher qualifications are less likely to be in informal employment. 99.6 percent of people with no formal education were found to be in informal employment.”

‘Nigeria needs to equip MSMEs to stimulate job creation’

Speaking on the report, the founder of Brain Builder Youth Development Initiative, Olasupo Abideen, said even though the unemployment figure is more than that, governments at all levels need to empower Medium Small Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) in governance structure and other skills necessary to grow their businesses.

“Whether we like it or not, the sector that controls the sector is the MSMEs and there should be a deliberate attempt by the government to ensure they are empowered.”

Abideen said empowerment should go beyond giving money but the youth should be trained on governance structure, issues around taxation and accounting.

“In the long run, when they want to seek investment, most of these people do not have the requirement to get an investment portfolio or to access grant opportunities,” he added.