According to the official, over N2.3 trillion ($6.04 billion) has been earmarked for the Economic Support Package (ESP) to be implemented by the Nigerian authorities in June 2020. This was to address the economic consequences of the Covid-19 crisis, which slowed down business activities in the country.

Thus, the two million jobs created or saved concern "in particular the MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises, editor's note) that benefited from the Survival Fund; the wage support programme; the rehabilitation works that were launched; including the 774,000 jobs created around public works in each of the 774 local government areas of the country," said Laolu Akande.

Despite this announcement, statistics indicate that the labour market situation has been severely deteriorated by Covid-19. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria's unemployment rate rose to 33.3% of the labour force in the last quarter of 2020 from 27.1% in the second quarter of the same year. In a report released this year, the IMF said Nigeria needs to create up to 5 million jobs per year over the next decade to avoid an explosion in its unemployment rate.

With 162,489 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 2,041 deaths, Nigeria is one of the West African countries most affected by the pandemic in a context that has already been made difficult by the fall in oil prices. In 2020, its economy recorded a historic recession, estimated at -3% of GDP by the AfDB.

For 2021, the institution projects the country's growth at 1.5%, due in particular to the "stimulus measures described in the Economic Sustainability Programme (ESP) and the 2020 Finance Act" which "could stimulate non-oil revenues".

The government's economic recovery plan for Covid-19 has succeeded in creating 2 million jobs to combat rising unemployment, which is a good thing!