Covid 19 Pandemic and Entrepreneurship Enterprise in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

In the face of the global coronavirus pandemic, entrepreneurs have realized that the pandemic is not just a health issue affecting all nations of the world, testing the resolve of governments and billions of people around the world, but it has also provoked a global economic downturn unprecedented since the Second World War. Its impact on business has not been witnessed before. This study examines the extent and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on entrepreneurship enterprise in Calabar, Cross River State. Adopting a descriptive quantitative survey method, data was collected from 385 participants, who were selected from a population of 6532 registered SMEs in Calabar using stratified, purposive and simple random sampling technique. a self-developed semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the needed information. Data collected from the field was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as graph, frequency distribution, simple percentages as well as Pearson Product Moment Correlation at 0.05 level of significance. From the analysis, result revealed that all the entrepreneurs (businesses) (99.21 per cent), are affected by the pandemic. 98.18 per cent of the business survey revealed that there has been a reduction in sales. 93.49 per cent of the businesses revealed that they have reduced production because of the pandemic. 46.88 per cent of the businesses have to lay off their employees. From the parametric statistics carried out, the study concludes that there is a negative significant relationship between Covid-19 pandemic on entrepreneurship enterprise. The study calls for grants, soft loans and other bailout modalities for entrepreneurs in the face of the global pandemic.