We haven’t released latest unemployment report because Buhari govt has not funded us— NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said failure of the Federal Government to release money to it is responsible for the non-release of the nation’s latest unemployment report.

This was disclosed on Wednesday by the Statistician-General of the Federation, Yemi Kale.

NBS is yet release Nigeria’s unemployment figures, which should be made public quarterly.

The The Statistician-General’s explanation is coming on the heels of accusations that the NBS is hoarding the figures so as not to damage the reputation of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration going into an election year.

The last time the NBS release of the data was from late November to December 2017, prompting expectations that unemployment in the country will soar to record highs, with 18.8 percent of the country’s population or 15.9 million people, unemployed.

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The NBS boss, who made the explanation on his Twitter handle, asked Nigerians to stop politicising the non-release of unemployment numbers.

He said: “I know it is election time, but I’ve said this repeatedly, nobody is calling me to manipulate any data or not to release any data.

“The work cannot be completed due to budgetary releases. It is not hard to confirm when last we got data funding and how much.

“The number of unemployed people within the labour force, who are unemployed or underemployed, increased from 13.6 million and 17.7 million respectively in Q2 2017 to 15.9 million and 18.0 million in Q3 2017.”

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