According to NBS 4.8 million Nigerians have lost their jobs since the present administration took office in May 2015

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has confirmed that Nigeria is in its worst economic recession in 29 years.

According to the NBS gross domestic product (GDP) report for the second quarter of 2016, Nigeria’s economy contracted by 2.06 percent to record its lowest growth rate in three decades.

In the first quarter of 2016, the NBS said the economy shrank by 0.36 percent to hit its lowest point in 25 years.

According to World Bank data, the last time Nigeria had this magnitude of economic decline was under the regime of Ibrahim Babangida, when the economy recorded consecutive decline of 0.51 percent and 0.82 percent in first and second quarters of 1987.

The NBS also revealed that the total number of Nigerians who became unemployed within the first and second quarter of 2016 now stands at 2.6 million.

According to the bureau, about 1.46 million Nigerians became unemployed in the third quarter of 2015, while another 518,102 became unemployed in the fourth quarter of 2015.

This brings the total freshly unemployed persons in the economy to a record high of    four million, five hundred and eighty thousand, six hundred and two, since the present administration took office in May 2015.

In its second quarter unemployment and underemployment report released on Wednesday, NBS said the country’s unemployment rate grew from 12.1 percent in the first quarter of 2016 to a record high of 13.3 percent in the second.

Underemployment in the economy was also on the rise, with 15.4 million Nigerians said to be underemployed.