Statistician-general says only NBS is allowed to give out unemployment numbers in Nigeria – Prince Semiu Adeyemi Adeniran, who is the Statistician-General of the Federation, has warned and urged Nigerians to throw out and not pay attention to any jobless numbers or data from any other body or organization than the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
In a talk with top journalists and publishers on Friday night, Prince Adeniran said that the NBS is the only organization with the power to study, collect data, and put out such numbers to help the government plan.
In response to a recent report from KPMG that said Nigeria’s unemployment rate was over 40%, Prince Adeniran, who is also the Director-General of the NBS, said that his office is the only one with the power to release statistical data on how each part of the economy is doing. He also said that his office doesn’t just make predictions or issue projected data.
“We don’t make predictions or forecasts based on what other people have done, and we don’t try to trick the Nigerian government into making plans based on information that isn’t accurate.” He said, “We go out and get real, raw data.”
He said that KPMG used NBS data to make predictions and projections before coming up with the over 40% unemployment rate, which he said is not possible.
He said that KPMG’s 40 percent unemployment rate is not reliable because it is based on an old way of doing things that has been thrown out in line with best practices around the world.
The head of the NBS said that the agency has adopted a new method that is in line with global standards. In a few weeks, the NBS will release a more robust, comprehensive, reliable, and usable Official Labour Force Survey that will measure the country’s job and unemployment rates.
“A 33 percent or 40 percent jobless rate is no longer tenable. The method needs to change to match the best practices around the world. Some people say that Nigeria’s jobless rate is 40%, but he said that is not true.
He also said that the Official Labour Force Survey is often made from National Household Surveys by a country’s National Statistical Office (NSO), “and this is not done at a desk. It is done in the field because each house has to be seen.”
