The Chairman, Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, has said 81 per cent of employed Nigerians are in non-productive sectors of the economy. Speaking at the African Trade and Investment Summit in Lagos.

He said that explains why the country has an unemployment rate that is low at 4.2 per cent, same as the UK while the country’s poverty rate is one of the highest in the world. He said: About 81 per cent of people in employment in Nigeria are engaged in a non-productive sector of the economy.

They are doing things that do not add value in the real sense of the word. “That is the reason why our unemployment rate even though is just 4.2 per cent, similar to that of the UK, our poverty rate is still one of the highest in the world.

We have over 113 million people living in poverty as of 2022 and it is most likely to have increased because that was before subsidy removal and naira floatation. So how is it that you have a high employment rate and you also have one of the highest poverty rates? That is the only explanation. We are working poor”.