COVID-19: 42% of 1,950 households suffered job...

…It’s time to channel energy towards economic recovery – Uwaleke

Due to the harsh effects of COVID-19 pandemic on virtually all sectors of the economy, about 42 per cent of Nigerians have suffered one form of job loss or the other, the National Bureau of Statistics has revealed.

NBS made the revelation in a survey conducted to monitor the impact of the pandemic on the economy.

According to NBS, the impact of COVID-19 on employment and income have been widespread.

“In order to track the impacts of the pandemic, the National Bureau of Statistics implemented the Nigeria COVID-19 National Longitudinal Phone Survey (COVID-19 NLPS) on a nationally representative sample of 1,950 households,” NBS said in the report tagged ‘COVID-19 Impact Monitoring’.

The report says that 42 percent of respondents who were working before the outbreak reported that they were not currently working due to COVID-19.

The apex Statistics body in the country said the survey was conducted between April to May 2020, during the time when the index case was identified in the country.

It stated that the impact of COVID-19 has been most strongly felt in the commerce, service, and agriculture sectors.

Seventy-nine percent of households surveyed reported that their households’ total income have decreased since mid- March, the report said.

In the report, NBS said experience of economic shocks by Nigerians in the few months after the outbreak of coronavirus far exceeds shocks experienced between 2017 and 2019.

“The most widely reported shock experienced by households was an increase in prices of major food items faced by 85 percent of households since the outbreak compared to only 19 percent between January 2017 and January 2019,” the report noted.

The report further indicated that the coping mechanism for 51 percent of households interviewed was reducing food consumption between March – May 2020.

“Many households have struggled to cope with these widespread shocks with 51 percent of all households resorting to reducing food consumption.”

To further cope with the shocks, NBS’s survey said many households were also drawing down their savings, 29 percent of the households fell into this category.

Also, a total of 26 percentage of interviewed households who needed medical treatment reported not being able to access treatment.

The survey further revealed that 38 percent of households with children who attended school prior to school closures due to the pandemic reported that their children did not engage in any learning or education activities.

Most of the households whose children did not engage in learning activities said between March to May, they did not have any contact with their children’s teachers.

Speaking on the impact of the pandemic on the economy and employment, an economist, Prof. Uche Uwaleke said it’s time for the Federal Government to channel efforts towards post Covid-19 recovery.

According to him, Small and Medium Enterprises have suffered business stagnation and will need bailout to still remain in business.

Setting agenda for recovery of economy and boosting employment, according to him, will ensure the economy stays afloat, a step which he says the Central Bank of Nigeria has begun by cutting lending rates otherwise know as Monetary Policy Rates (MPR) by 100 basis points to 12.5% at the last Committee meeting.

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“Against the backdrop of the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy, the MPC recognised the need not to slowdown the trajectory of the weakened economy and ‘signal a direction towards immediate recovery’.

“To this end, the MPC had argued that ‘an accommodative stance, through a lowering of the policy rate will stimulate credit expansion to critically important sectors that will also stimulate employment and revive economic activity for quick growth recovery,” he said.

Speaking further, Uwaleke said that reducing lending should be translated by Deposit Money Banks to ensure that largest employer of labour which is the Small and Medium Enterprises sector gets bailout or some sort of loan support to recover as set the economy on a part of recovery.

He said there is an urgent need for increased money supply to fund economic activities and boost output recovery even as the federal and sub national governments battle to contain the spread and impact of the pandemic.