ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF CORONA VIRUS PANDEMIC DISASTER ON LIVELIHOOD OF SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE BUSINESS OPERATORS IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to determine Assessment of the Impact of Corona Virus Pandemic disaster on livelihood of Small and Medium Scale Business Operators in Rivers State. Two research Questions and two hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of study comprised the entire population of 440 business operators which was also used as sample. A structured instrument titled “Assessment of the Impact of Corona Virus Pandemic Disaster Questionnaire (AICOVPADIQ) was used to collect data for the study. The instrument was validated by three experts. A pilot study involving 30 small scale business operators from Abia State were conducted to assertion the reliability of the instrument and analysis with the Cronbach alpha which yielded the reliability coefficient of 0.81. The instrument was directly administered to the respondents by the researchers with the help of two research assistants. Data collected were analyzed using mean to answer the research questions and standard deviation to determine the homogeity or otherwise of the independents' mean relays t-test statistical tool was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The decision rule was based on the cluster mean score relative to the real limits members on a four-point scale. Similarly, null hypotheses were rejected if the calculated t-value excess the table value where the calculated t-value is having the critical value, hypotheses was accepted. Based on the analyses, it was revealed that that corona virus pandemic affected small scale business operators in Rivers State, that corona virus negatively affected businesses, customers were scores, difficulty in purchase of goods from producers, etc. negatively affected small scale business operators. It was also revealed that Government should provide strategies to stop the spread of corona virus pandemic and that Business operators should adhere to stipulated strategies outlined curb the spread of Corona Virus pandemic.