Keywords: covid-19, households, livelihood, Nigeria
Introduction
The covid-19 pandemic is one of the most devastating events that has disrupted and impacted on the economic social and physical activities in livelihood of households all over the world. According to World Health Organization-WHO (2020) and International Monetary Fund-IMF (2020) the Pandemic spread like a wild fire to over two hundred (200) countries around the world and brings on the most economic slowdown since the Great depression. Covid-19 Pandemic was first identified in Wuhan, China, causing massive death and has spread to almost all parts of the world (Akanni & Gabriel, 2020). WHO (2021), reported that globally, as of 29 September 2021, that there have been 232,636,622 confirmed cases of covid-19 with 4,762,089 number of deaths. In addition, the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reported that as of 29 September 2021, there have been a total number of 205,484 confirmed cases with 9,286 of active cases and 2,702 deaths cases of covid-19 in Nigeria.
In addition, the disease covid-19 not only signifies a global public health emergency but has also become an international economic problem that is likely to expand inequalities and affect poor and vulnerable populations. The covid-19 has led to nearly shutdown of the world’s economy as airports, supermarkets, seaports, parks, stadiums, cinemas, hotels, restaurants among others were closed(World Bank, 2020). These have gradually milled world economies. In addition, the pandemic shocks have led to closure of international boarders across the world, a punch on globalization by all countries. This obviously calls for self-reflection, forcing countries to search inward to survive especially countries like Nigeria that are export dependent. Thus, covid-19 pandemic has created the conditions that are equivalent to levels of deprivation last seen in the mid-1980s (UNDP, 2020).
The pandemic has resulted in a drastic decrease of exports, particularly raw materials; a decline in commodity prices to historical lows; a sharp decline in services especially tourism; and a steep reduction in remittances. This necessitates direct costs related to morbidity, health care, and uncertainty. Moreover, the indirect costs in terms of containment and mitigation measures imposed to reduce the spread of the disease include reduction of labour, production capacity, productivity and erosion of human capital (World Bank, 2020). The Bank further noted that, the pandemic has negatively created demand, supply and welfare shocks on individuals and households for all countries. From the demand and supply sides, the pandemic has caused the reductions of people’s ability to work and firms to produce; it lowers the incentive for people to consume and for firms to invest. It may hurt low- and middle-income countries disproportionately because they lack the resources and capacity to deal with systemic shocks, having larger informal sectors, shallower financial markets, less fiscal space, and less developed institutions and governance.
Considerably, coronavirus has negative effect on households’ income due to illness and decline in formal and non-formal employment and remittances. Disruptions in the delivery of essential goods and services, including health care, education and nutrition. Thus, erode not only welfare but also human capital and future productivity. Furthermore, the epidemic adversely affected women and other vulnerable groups outside the formal social protection system. Moreover, the corrosion in welfare, closure of educational institutions and other services, and the increase in stress and violence can have irreversible negative consequences for adolescent girls and children. Disability, ethnic, religious, or geographic characteristics may further worsen the negative effect from the pandemic. Hence, the pandemic has produced adverse effects on poverty, vulnerability and human capital especially in low-and middle-income countries (World Bank, 2020).
It is against this background that this study seeks to examine the effect of covid-19 pandemic on households’ livelihood in Sokoto State.
The framework depicted in Figure I explains the possible channels through which covid-19 pandemic may likely affect the livelihood of households within the dimensions of the social, economic, cultural and physiological perspectives.