Covid-19 Pandemic- Challenges and Opportunities in the Development of Rural Areas in Nigeria

Abstract

Covid-19 is a novel virus that has brought myriads of challenges to the global community and its devastating negative impact to countries with weak health and economic systems. One of the countries that the pandemic has brought serious challenges is Nigeria whose major food supply and raw materials for industrial development come from rural areas. In the wake of the pandemic, the government of Nigeria embarked in appropriate measures to curtail the spread of the virus. Those measures are closures of international borders, closure of interstate boundaries to prevent vehicular movement, closure of churches, embargo on community activities such as burials, marriages, traditional gathering etc. These measures created negative impact in the rural communities as the government ensure enforcement in all the nooks and crannies. Though covid-19 posed challenges, it also created vast opportunities in the areas of the health sector, basic hygiene improvement, technological innovation, increase in the Gross Domestic Product and the modernization of the agricultural industry to boost food sufficiency. These opportunities are capable of developing the rural areas and make it more strategic and reliable to the national and global economies. The article analyzed the opportunities which covid-19 has brought. The modernization theory is used to explain the article.