Covid-19 increases Africa’s unemployment rate by 8.9%
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the number of young people globally who can’t find a job this year is set to reach 73 million – that’s a full six million more than before COVID-19. The pandemic has caused many additional problems for 15 to 24-year-olds who’ve experienced ‘much higher’ unemployment losses than older workers since the global health emergency was declared in early 2020. Young women have struggled more than their male counterparts to find work, while Arab nations are expected to see the highest levels of youth unemployment by the end of the year, compared to the global average. Speaking at the launch of ILO’s report, Ms. Newton said that the share of youth not in employment, education or training in 2020 rose to 23.3 per cent. That represents an increase of 1.5 percentage points from 2019 and represents a level not seen in at least 15 years, the ILO report found.
WAEC releases WASSCE 2022 results with 76.36% pass
The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has released the results of the May 16 to June 23 of the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) on August 8, 2022 with 76.36 pass record. The record for the 2022 result represents a decrease of five percent compared to the 2021 performance at 81.7percent pass record. WAEC stated that a total of 1,222,505 candidates obtained credits and above in a minimum of five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics. This figure represents 76.36percent of the 1,601,047 candidates that sat for the examination.
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Naira overvalued by 200%, may be devalued
The Nigerian currency is overvalued by 200 percent and the Investors and Exporters (I&E) foreign exchange window rate may be devalued next month, Bismarck Rewane, managing director of Financial Derivatives Company Limited (FDC). The valuation is based on the Big Mac index which is considered extreme – taking into account just one product and used to measure the level of overvalued currency and as a strategy to encourage exports. The naira has depreciated against the dollar across the Nigerian foreign exchange market in recent weeks. It fell to N431 per dollar, its lowest since the introduction of the I&E forex window, which is the official window. It weakened to a record low N710 per dollar on the parallel market, popularly called black market, last month.
Governors support disengagement of 12,000 federal workers to save N450bn
About 11,926 federal government’s workers may soon say goodbye to the federal service should the Nigerian federal government go ahead to implement one of the recommendations made by the 36 governors of the federation as published recently by the Premium Times. The 36 Nigerian governors recommended to the federal government that federal workers aged 50 years and above should be retired and given a one-off retirement package to exit the service as this is expected to reduce the ballooning personnel costs of the federal government, the online medium said. The governors also suggested that in their replacement, lower-cost, more ICT-compliant youths and women graduates should be employed.
FG to begin implementation of hiked tariff on data, calls
Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, has announced the federal government plans to begin the implementation of a five percent excise tax on all voice calls, SMS and data services. Ahmed disclosed this during a stakeholders’ meeting, organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the telecoms industry regulator. The new tariff, coming well over a year after it was signed into law through the Finance Act 2020, would be implemented alongside the existing 7.5 percent Value Added Tax (VAT) goods and services across all sectors of the economy. Ahmed’s announcement would override a recent comment by the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami rejecting the planned implementation of a five percent tariff in the Nigerian telecoms sector.
