By Bashir Olanrewaju
Wednesday, 7 October 2020
Debts owed by Nigerian households are on the increase in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a survey published by the National Bureau of Statistics.
“About one in four households were indebted prior to the pandemic, while nearly a third have taken out new loans since the onset of the pandemic, ” the agency said in the survey posted on its Twitter account. The poor are more likely to take on additional debt than those who are richer as the effects of the economic disruption caused by the coronavirus linger, it said.
Only 34 percent of the respondents held down jobs since April, while 60 percent have experienced periodic unemployment. The other 6 percent haven’t worked since the start of the Covid-19 disease, NBS said.
More than 67 percent of households involved in the survey reported loss of income during the period under consideration when compared to a year earlier.