NBS Rejects Claims From Presidency That Buhari Has Created At Least 12 Million New Jobs

The Director-General of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Dr. Yemi Kale, has distanced himself from a claim by the presidency that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has created at least 12 million new jobs since inauguration in 2015.

The claim was made by President Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, while he was speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday, December 17, 2018.

When Shehu was questioned on the administration’s poor job creation numbers based on the data of the NBS, Shehu said that the Director-General of the NBS, Dr. Yemi Kale, admitted to the federal government that the report only focused on white-collar jobs.

According to Shedu, a claim by the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) that 12 million jobs had been created in the agricultural sector has not been disputed by anyone. Read the report HERE.

However, when Dr. Yemi Kale was asked about the presidency’s claim on his Twitter account (@sgyemikale) on Monday, he noted that no such admission was made by him or the government-funded agency.

https://twitter.com/sgyemikale/status/1074560458424770560

He said:

“I make it very clear that neither the statistician general nor NBS ever made any such admission at anytime to anybody and the unemployment computations does take into account all sectors, age groups and both rural and urban areas.”