The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed in a survey that about 71.2million Nigerians are self-employed and 12.96million others are salary earners out of 88.9million in the country’s labour force.
According to the data, among the salary earners, most of them work for the private sector (9.64 million) and the rest for public sector (3.32 million).
It discloses that there are 116.6million people in Nigeria who are of working age. Out of that group, 88.9million people are part of the labour force, which implies they are either working or searching for a job.
It further revealed that they are 84.1 million people that are working and 4.79 million people unemployed.
It read, “A significant 85% of employed people in Nigeria are self-employed, indicating that a lot of jobs come from individuals working for themselves.
“The remaining 15% of employed individuals earn wages, with 74% of them working in the private sector and 26% in the public sector.”
While speaking about the survey, a Lagos-based labour issue analyst, Jibowu Shodeinde stated that most Nigerians are self employed and it shows economic recovery in the country.
This would help Nigeria to bounce back to its normal state since most of them would soon become employers of labour.
Shodeinde said, “But this will only hold true if the government’s bad policies don’t drive them out of business.”
He further encouraged the federal government to enforce policies that can make small and large business thrive in the country.