The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has published its quarterly Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) report, revealing that 84% of the economically active population in Nigeria are self-employed. This is a 3.3%-point decline compared to the 87.3% self-employment rate reported in Q3 2023.
The self-employment rate recorded in the report decreased in both rural and urban areas. In rural areas, the self-employed population declined from 93.7% in Q3 2023 to 91.9% in Q1 2024, a 1.8%-point decline. In cities, the rate dropped from 80.7% to 78.2%, showing a 2.5 percentage point drop.
Moreover, the report observed a nearly twofold jump in wage employment in Q1 2024 to 16.0%, up from 12.7% in Q3 2023, by 3.3% points.
The self-employment rate also showed a decline by gender. The proportion of women in self-employment fell by 2.3%-points from 90.2% in Q3 2023 to 87.9% in Q1 2024. For men, self-employment dropped by 3%-points from 82.9% to 79.9% within the same period.
In addition, the problem of informal employment in Nigeria remains high, with 92.7% of the employed population engaged in informal activities. This shows a slight increase of 0.4-points from 92.3% in Q3 2023.
The report also states that informality is more pronounced in rural areas, where 97.6% of rural dwellers are informally employed, than in urban areas, where 89.0% are informally engaged.
It was also found that completion of education has a significant impact on being in informal employment, and not so with the uneducated or less schooled who are mostly informally employed.
