BY SULE TAHIR.
Recent findings by National Economic Indices has projected that Nigeria’s unemployment rate has been projected to rise further to 40.6 percent in 2023.
This according to KPMG, a professional services firm in its report titled ‘Global Economic Outlook’.
The professional services firm said the figure is based on its estimates.
As at fourth quarter (Q4) of 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the country ‘s unemployment rate stood at 33.3 percent .
“Unemployment is expected to continue to be a major challenge in 2023 due to the limited investment by the private sector, low industrialization and slower than required economic growth and consequently the inability of the economy to absorb the 4‐5 million new entrants into the Nigerian job market every year,” KPMG said in the report.
Although lagged, the National Bureau of Statistics recorded an increase in the national unemployment rate from 23.1% in 2018 to 33.3% in 2020.
“We estimate that this rate has increased to 37.7% in 2022 and will rise further to 40.6% in 2023.”
KPMG projected that Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) would continue to grow at a relatively slow pace of three percent in 2023.
This, it said, is due to the slowdown in economic activity that typically characterises periods of political transition in Nigeria.
The firm said the spillover from an expected slowdown in the global economy and its trade and financial flows implications are likely to drag on the country’s GDP.
