The federal government of Nigeria has expressed fear that unless something is done about the covid-19 pandemic, at least 39.4 million Nigerians may be out of job before the end of the year.
According to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who made this known while briefing president Muhammadu Buhari on the the report of the Economic Sustainability Committee, millions of Nigerians may also slide into poverty before the end of the pandemic unless a measure is put in place.
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The committee in its report, advised the creation of programs that would create mass employments opportunity and also use localized materials.
The Vice President said, “Several projections, including those done by the NBS on behalf of the Economic Sustainability Committee, showed a severe downturn in our oil earnings, as a result of which, even with oil price at $30 a barrel, we would still have a shortfall of about N185bn every month in the amount available for allocation to the three tiers of government.
“They showed that unemployment may rise to 33.6 per cent or about 39.4 million people by the end of 2020, if we fail to take prompt preemptive measures.
“They showed that millions more will fall into extreme poverty before the pandemic ends; and that GDP may fall to between -4.40 per cent and -8.91 per cent, depending on the length of the lockdown period and strength of our economic response.”
He added, “We have therefore recommended that we must carry out mass programmes that create jobs and utilise local materials.”
Something needs to be done about this. The government ought to solve the problem of unemployment and not help to increase it. It saddens my heart to read this.