The primary objective of data-driven policy formulation is to effectively inform and steer the process of developing, implementing and evaluating public policies by strategically leveraging data analysis and derived insights. By harnessing the power of data, policymakers have the opportunity to enhance their decision-making processes, leading to more well-informed choices, superior policy outcomes and a heightened ability to effectively tackle the various challenges faced by society.

Given the aforementioned, it becomes apparent why there is concern in certain quarters regarding the significantly lower figures presented by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) following its adoption of the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) methodology for calculating unemployment rates. It is crucial to acknowledge that the NBS unemployment reports typically consist of three distinct datasets, namely ‘Old Nigeria’, ‘New Nigeria’, and ‘International’. The ‘International’ dataset specifically reflects the use of the ILO’s methodology so the absence of novelty in both the data and methodology prompts us to question the necessity of the shift, which is even more curious if you consider the lack of regularity in the release of unemployment data in recent years. Could the funding for the data-gathering exercise have been the pivotal element in compelling a shift to a methodology that ‘aligns with’ international best practices? This has become another subject for debate.

In contrast to the anecdotal evidence, the NBS announced a drop in the unemployment rate to 4.1% in Q1’23 from 5.3% in Q4’22 – a significant decline from the 17.5% recorded in Q4’20 – implying that Nigeria’s unemployment rate is now comparable to levels in the United States of America (USA) – 3.4%, the United Kingdom (UK) – 4.2%, and lower than the Eurozone – 6.4% and Canada – 5.5%.