Nigeria’s unemployment rate to hit 37% in 2023

The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has projected the unemployment rate in Africa’s most populous nation to hit 37 percent this year.

This indicates that the expected unemployment rate is nearly four percentage points higher than the 33.3 percent projected by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for 2020.

NESG In its latest 2023 Macroeconomic Outlook report titled: “Nigeria in Transition: Recipes for Shared Prosperity,” said the projected rate and the poverty headcount would amplify to 45 percent this year.

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“This is due to weak performance in the job-elastic sectors, low labour absorption of sectors that will drive growth, and population growth estimated at 3.2 percent will lead to a decline in real per capita income,” it said.

The report also revealed that the inflation rate would average 20.5 percent while the Gross Domestic Growth rate would moderate to 2.98 percent this year.

The NESG added: “Inflationary pressure is expected to remain elevated, driven by structural, cost, and monetary factors. Food inflation will remain the fundamental driver of inflation due to the enduring impact of flooding, increased production costs due to increased cost of credit, insecurity and displacement.”

“Existing fuel shortages and the removal of fuel subsidies will continue to increase the core components, especially transportation.”

The think-tank group noted that Nigeria’s economic growth would be subdued in 2023 due to strains on investment and low productivity in critical sectors.

“The services sector will drive economic growth, but this growth will not be strong enough to generate significant jobs.

“As a result, unemployment will remain unabated. Economic growth will be supported by election-related spending and improvement in the oil sector,” it concluded.