IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON THE NIGERIAN ECONOMY

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on the coronavirus called COVID-19 situation in Nigeria and its economic impact on the economy. The study also examines the structural causes that worsen the COVID-19 crisis in Nigeria. This findings reveal that the economic downturn in Nigeria was triggered2 by a combination of declining oil prices and spillovers from the COVID-19 outbreak, which led to a fall in demand for oil products and social distancing, economic activities halted from taking place. The government retort to the crisis was to provide financial assistance to businesses and a few households affected by the coronavirus outburst. The Federal Government of Nigeria approved accommodative economic strategies by offering a targeted ₦3.5trillion loan as support to some sectors of the economy. However, these efforts did not prevent the economic crisis from occurring, as expected. The Managers of the economy and agents could not freely engage in economic activities to fear contacting the COVID-19 disease that was spreading fast at the time. Many studies on the impact of COVID-19 are often discussed in developed countries, stressing a gap in understanding how the pandemic impacts developing countries. Objectives - This study aims at determining the Impact of covid-19 on the Nigerian economy. The paper testes the hypothesis that there is significant relationship and effect of covid-19 and the Nigerian economy, effect of covid-19 on import and export rate, effect of covid-19 on the health and educational sector, and the preventive measures to be adopted so as to fight against the disease. Methodology – The usage of questionnaire to carry out the project work, the data gathered were presented according to the order in which they were arranged in the research questions, sample percentage and bar charts were used to analyze the demographic information of the respondents while the Pearson correlation method was adopted to test the research hypothesis. Findings - The results reveals a significant positive relationship between variables. The main aim of the research work is to determine the effect of corona virus (COVID-19) on the Nigeria economy. The study found out that there is significant relationship between corona virus (COVID-19) and the Nigeria economy, corona virus (COVID-19) has significant effect on the Nigeria economy, corona virus (COVID-19) has significant effect on the education sector in Nigeria, social distancing and lock down are the measures adopted by the federal government of Nigeria to curb the spread of corona virus (COVID-19) in Nigeria, the introduction of technology to schools and other aspect of the Nigerian economy(zoom, google meet and so on) and the lock down during the period of corona virus affects the contribution of small businesses to the Nigeria economy Research limitations – These includes financial constraints and time constraints, in acquiring enough data to carry out this research work. Conclusion - conclusion there is significant relationship between corona virus (COVID-19) and the Nigeria economy. The result of the data analysis shows that there is a statistically significantly (0.00) strong relationship (0.819) between the responses of the respondents xii that said that there is significant relationship between corona virus disease (COVID-19) and the Nigeria economy and those that said that the lock down during the period of corona virus affects the contribution of small businesses to the Nigeria economy. Recommendations - Data used for this study need to be subjected to more statistical tests in order to establish a more robust validity and reliability. It is necessary to acquire further strengthened data and assume a variety of conditional situations. It is expected that subsequent studies can use larger samples and diversified by sector, a broader geographic base and a multi-faceted analysis. Practical implications - This work will be useful to stimulate debate and discussion about the role of financial education to attenuating difficulties of small and medium scale enterprises in achieving goals of value creation.