Nearly half of Nigerian households hit by job, business losses in one year

Nearly half of Nigerian households experienced a job loss, business closure or inability to find work in the past 12 months, according to a new report by SBM Intelligence on Thursday.

The report, “Six Zones, One Crisis: What Nigerians say about jobs, skills and the risk of leaving”, found that 45.3% of households suffered at least one of these economic shocks during the period.

It also showed that 79.1% of respondents would consider relocating from their current geopolitical zone for a good job, highlighting the depth of labour market pressure across the country.

The report was based on an in-person survey of 1,180 respondents across 21 cities in Nigeria between July 7 and 18, 2026, covering all six geopolitical zones.

SBM Intelligence said the findings showed that Nigeria’s employment crisis differed significantly across regions, making a one-size-fits-all national jobs programme unlikely to address the underlying problems.

What the report says

The report read, “Across 1,180 respondents in 21 cities and all six geopolitical zones, this survey finds a country where 45.3% of households experienced a job loss, business closure or inability to find work in the past twelve months, where four in five respondents (79.1%) would consider relocating for a good job, and where the sectors people say are most urgently needed, agriculture, technology and manufacturing, are not the sectors currently absorbing the workforce.”

It further noted that the Southeast recorded the highest incidence of household economic shock at 66.5%, meaning about two-thirds of surveyed households in the region lost a job, closed a business or struggled to find work during the previous year.
The Northcentral followed at 61.3%, while the South-South recorded 50.3%.
The rate was lower in the Northeast at 40.4% and Southwest at 32.7%, while the Northwest had the lowest figure at 21.5%.

SBM Intelligence linked the Southeast’s high rate to a combination of infrastructure, capital and security pressures, including disruptions to economic activity from sit-at-home orders.

It noted, however, that the Northwest’s lower household shock rate should not automatically be interpreted as evidence of a healthier formal labour market, as subsistence agriculture may have provided a cushion for some households.

The report also identified major differences in what is preventing Nigerians from accessing or retaining jobs.
Low pay was the leading labour constraint in the Southeast, cited by 24.8% of respondents, and in the South-South at 21.1%.

By contrast, the Northwest and Northeast were more affected by skills shortages. About 26.8% of respondents in the Northwest identified a lack of skills as a major barrier, the highest rate in the country, while 22.9% in the Northeast gave the same response.

In the Southwest, poor infrastructure was the biggest obstacle at 21%, closely followed by difficulty accessing capital at 20%.
Credit access was also a major challenge in the Northcentral, where 21% of respondents identified it as a barrier to work and enterprise.

The survey also found that discrimination was a particularly significant challenge for young people in the South-South, where 33% of respondents cited factors such as age, ethnicity, gender and connections as reasons young people struggled to secure or retain employment.

Four in five Nigerians open to relocating

The weakness of regional labour markets is also driving high mobility among workers.

According to the report, 21.2% of respondents said they would definitely relocate from their current zone for a good job, while 57.9% said they could relocate depending on the conditions.
Only 20.9% said they preferred to remain where they currently live.
This means nearly four in five Nigerians surveyed were willing to consider moving for better employment opportunities.

The South-South had the highest relocation tendency, with 92.6% of respondents open to moving. About 28.9% said they would definitely leave, while only 7.4% preferred to stay.

The Southwest followed with 86.3% willing to relocate, although only 10.2% said they would definitely do so.
In the Southeast, 75.7% were willing to move, while 23.3% were definite and 24.3% preferred to remain.
Relocation willingness stood at 69.3% in the Northwest, 68.9% in the Northcentral and 59.6% in the Northeast.

The report described the South-South as particularly exposed to labour flight.

Despite being Nigeria’s main oil-producing region, respondents in Port Harcourt, Warri and Calabar reported significant difficulty finding jobs, suggesting that oil production has not translated into broad-based employment.

SBM Intelligence said the region’s non-oil economy had also failed to develop sufficiently to absorb its growing workforce.

Digital skills top training demand

The report also showed that Nigerians increasingly see digital capabilities as a route to improved employment prospects.

Digital skills were the most preferred training option nationally, selected by 52.7% of respondents as their first choice.
The preference was strongest in the Southeast, where 71.4% selected digital skills, followed by the Northwest at 58.5% and South-South at 58.3%.
Digital skills were also the leading preference in the Northcentral and Southwest.
The Northeast was the only exception, where construction trades ranked first at 29.4%, ahead of digital skills at 23.9%.

The report further found that technology and ICT were regarded as having the highest industry potential nationally, followed by agriculture and agro-processing.

However, the outlook varied considerably across regions, reinforcing SBM Intelligence’s argument that employment policy should reflect local economic realities.

The organisation recommended greater federal investment in inter-zonal economic corridors, a national digital skills infrastructure, improved credit access for small enterprises and a national vocational qualification framework.

It also called for better regional labour market data and stronger measures to address nepotism in public-sector recruitment.

SBM Intelligence argued that current credit programmes were not sufficiently reaching informal businesses and self-employed Nigerians, who made up 34.1% of respondents in the survey.

It proposed consolidating intervention funds into a simpler financing framework capable of reaching smaller businesses more effectively.

What you should know

The report, however, cautioned that its findings have some limitations.

About 56.8% of respondents were urban residents, while 38.6% held an HND or bachelor’s degree.
The Northeast sample was drawn mainly from Bauchi and excluded Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, while 114 of the 119 Northcentral respondents were from Abuja.

SBM Intelligence therefore noted that the sample over-represented urban and educated Nigerians and that findings for the Northeast and Northcentral should not be treated as fully representative of both regions.

The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) recently warned that Nigeria must generate at least 27.3 million new formal jobs between 2025 and 2030 to maintain its unemployment rate at 4.3 per cent and prevent a looming employment crisis.

In its report titled “From Hustle to Decent Work: Unlocking Jobs and Productivity for Economic Transformation in Nigeria”, the group revealed that this translates to an annual average of 4.55 million net new jobs, a target it described as both “ambitious and indispensable” for sustaining inclusive economic growth and social stability.