Almost four out of ten workers stopped working due to the novel coronavirus pandemic with those in commerce sector worst affected, according to a new report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on the socio-economic effects of Covid-19 on Nigerian households.
The 38% reported to have stopped working is based on a survey carried out between April and May, and puts into perspective the expected spike in unemployment from the coronavirus impact which disrupted activities across sectors of the economy.
“Workers in all sectors were affected by the pandemic, but primarily those working in commerce, services and agriculture,” said NBS.
The data bureau said 14% of respondents were working in the commerce sector before the outbreak but have since stopped working due to COVID-19. “This is equivalent to 60% of all those working in the sector prior to the pandemic,” it said.
9% of respondents in Agric and Services each, 7% in Construction and 3% in Public Administration stopped working because of the pandemic.
The poorest households formed the highest of workers that stopped working (45%) but the rate was also high for the wealthiest households (39%). The middle-class saw a rate of 42%, the second highest.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative effect on Nigeria households’ total income, as a high rate of households reported income loss since mid-March.
79% of households reported that their total income decreased. Income from all sources were affected by the pandemic and reported to have decreased since mid-March.
“However, the rate was highest for income from non-farm family business (85%) compared to household farming, livestock or fishing (73%) and wage employment (58%),” the report stated.
Nigeria was among the first countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to identify cases of COVID-19 and has recorded over 11,000 cases since its index case in late February.
The country’s economy by 1.87% in Q1 2020, the slowest in over a year, on non-oil sector weakens
