The Director-General of the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), Adewale Oyerinde, has said the private sector, not the government, remains Nigeria’s largest employer of labour.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television on Tuesday, Oyerinde argued that private businesses sustain millions of jobs directly and indirectly through their value chains, giving them a far greater impact on employment than the public sector.
“It is an error to think the government is Nigeria’s biggest employer. The private sector remains larger, and its impact is broader than most people realise,” Oyerinde said during the interview monitored in Lagos.
He explained that the employment footprint of businesses extends far beyond their direct workforce. Using a manufacturing firm with 50,000 workers as an example, he said that closing such an operation would not only displace those employees but also threaten the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people in its supply and distribution networks.
“At the back end, you have suppliers that feed into the production system, and at the front end, you have distributors who rely on those goods to sell. When a factory closes, it’s not just the 50,000 employees that are affected; another 100,000 or 150,000 jobs could be lost indirectly,” he explained.
Oyerinde added that despite the economic challenges that have forced many firms to shut down or relocate in the past decade, the private sector has continued to shoulder the burden of job creation.
Established in 1957, NECA is the umbrella body for employers in Nigeria’s organised private sector and is often described as the “voice of business.” Oyerinde has led the organisation as Director-General since 2022.
Government data indicates that the federal civil service employs about 720,000 workers nationwide, according to a 2022 report by the Bureau of Public Service Reforms. Lagos State alone accounts for roughly 120,000 civil servants, with additional employees spread across other states and local governments, though a consolidated national figure is unavailable.
