The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has announced that its recent survey revealed that 42 per cent of Nigerians have lost their jobs due to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
The Bureau said the study was conducted between April to May 2020, during the time when the index case was identified in the country. It was further gathered that the impact of COVID-19 has been most strongly felt in the commerce, service and agriculture sectors.
While seventy-nine per cent of households surveyed reported that their households’ total income has decreased since mid- March, NBS added that the economic shock experienced by Nigerians after the outbreak of Coronavirus far exceeds shocks experienced between 2017 and 2019.
In its report titled “COVID-19 IMPACT MONITORING”, the NBS said “In order to track the impacts of the pandemic, the National Bureau of Statistics implemented the Nigeria COVID-19 National Longitudinal Phone Survey (COVID-19 NLPS) on a nationally representative sample of 1,950 households. The most widely reported shock experienced by households was an increase in prices of major food items faced by 85 per cent of households since the outbreak compared to only 19 per cent between January 2017 and January 2019.”