BENIN CITY RESIDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF COVID-19

ABSTRACT 

The outbreak of COVID-19 across the world posed serious challenges to livelihoods and economies. In Nigeria, health communications campaigns were embarked upon to inform the public about the pandemic and to provide information about preventive measures to adopt so as to check the spread of the virus. In Benin metropolis, billboards were deployed to spread information about the virus and the people were provided specific details about the pandemic and the behavioural changes required to be safe and protected from the pandemic. This study adopted the mixed method design using both survey method and Focused Group Discussion for quantitative and qualitative data collection. Questionnaire was distributed and group discussions were held to evaluate how billboards messages created awareness about COVID-19 and how residents in Benin metropolis were impacted by these messages. The majority of respondents (88%) said they were exposed to COVID-19 prevention messages on billboards, while a considerable number (43%) noted that the billboards helped them with emergency contacts to report health emergencies. Also, majority of the respondents (60%) said the billboards were effective in influencing changes in their attitude and behaviour in response to the pandemic while a considerable large number of the respondents (65%) said they would recommend use of billboards in future health communication campaigns. It was recommended that when widespread media coverage is required, billboard advertising should be promoted to ensure that people are exposed to a variety of messages in a variety of formats and attain message saturation.