By Ngozi Onyeakusi— The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed that about 20 per cent of workers in Nigeria lost their jobs as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.
The NBS and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) surveyed sbout 3,000 businesses in Nigeria. In March, the NBS said a third of Nigeria’s workers were out of a job in the fourth quarter of last year, a situation worsened by the pandemic. “While there have been promising signs of recovery this year, COVID-19 has had an outsized socio-economic impact on Nigeria,” the duo said in a statement. The job cuts followed disruptions to supply chains, continuing supply and demand shocks, and a drop in consumer confidence. About 60 per cent of the almost 3,000 businesses surveyed reported that one in three of them knew of a company that had permanently closed down because of operational challenges resulting from the pandemic. Four-fifths of enterprises reported decreased production, it said. Businesses complained about revenue declines, higher costs and an inadequate safety net for those in the informal sector, they said, adding that the disruption could leave a lasting impact on enterprises. Only a few in the utilities, financial and health sectors reported gains from the previous year.