Akwa Ibom Rejects NBS Jobless Rate Of 42%

By Ayodele Oluwafemi

The Akwa Ibom State Government has rejected the report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that ranked the state as having the second-highest unemployment rate in the country. The state was recently ranked by the NBS as having an unemployment rate of 45.2%.

The state government noted that the NBS report regarding the state was antithetical to the reality.

NBS, on Friday, published the unemployment data of the nations for the second quarter in 2020, in which the employment rate rose from 23.1 per cent in 2018 Q3 to 27.1 per cent in 2020 Q2.

In the states category of the report,  Imo state had the highest rate of unemployment with 48.7 per cent, followed by Akwa Ibom state with 45.2 per cent, followed by Rivers and Delta states with 43.7per cent and 40.3 per cent respectively.

While Anambra state has the lowest rate of unemployment at 13.1 per cent.

Reacting to the report, the Akwa Ibom Commissioner for Information, Ini Emembong, questioned the methodology deployed by NBS to arrive at the statistics, noting that the administration of Governor Emmanuel Udom has provided quality jobs.

“A juxtaposition of the said report with the reality of the existence and operation of the numerous industries in our state, the recruitment into the civil and public service, Public-Private Partnership initiatives, award of direct Labour contracts, our airline and general aviation businesses, qualitative cash support and interest-free loans to entrepreneurs, financial and input support to farmers.

“The obvious conclusion will confirm that indeed the current administration has created quality jobs in an unprecedented manner.

“Particularly, we will seek answers to the following questions: What was the sample size used in the survey? What was the spatial spread of the sample? What population figure did they use to obtain the percentage recorded for Akwa Ibom?” the commissioner said.

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