The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has accused the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige of falsehood after the minister claimed that the employment index statistics by the NBS was not in line with global standards.
The NBS had in a report published on March 15, 2021 disclosed that the number of unemployed people in Nigeria had increased by 1.4 million in six months.
According to the Labour Force Statistics report, a total of 2,318,389 million Nigerians are willing to work but cannot find work as of December 2020.
The data also revealed that the unemployment rate jumped from 27.1% in Q2 2020 to 33.3% in Q4 2020.
But on Wednesday, Mr Ngige faulted the employment index while receiving the leadership of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) in his office.
The minister said the methodology used by the NBS to gather and analyse data was not in line with the global standard of arriving at such statistics.
He 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 format of arriving at such Employment Index.”
Responding to the statement of the minister, the NBS on Friday revealed in a statement that it had contacted the World Bank and the world apex bank denied making such condemnation.
It further urged any party to reach out to the world bank to confirm the information.
“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 @nigerianstat. The World Bank can be contacted if in doubt,” the statistics body tweeted via its official handle.
