Socio-Economic Impact of Coronavirus on Livelihoods in Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria

The whole world is faced with a pandemic that threaten not only the health of humanity but also the economic and social aspect of life especially for a disadvantage City like Makurdi. The central issue the paper address is the socio-economic impact of coronavirus with focus on protecting livelihoods of the urban poor. The paper investigated the socio-economic impact of coronavirus on livelihoods in Makurdi using primary sources of data. Socio-economic impact rating by respondents was analyzed using weighted sum and weighted mean to rank impact of coronavirus on livelihoods in Makurdi. The result shows that, loss of business capital was rank 1^st on impact of coronavirus on livelihoods, follow by reduce income generation 2^nd, education expenses affected 3^rd, difficulty to pay bills 4^th, reduce standard of living 5^th, increase crime/violence 6^th, result to livelihood lost 7^th, low productivity 8^th, create more debt 9^th, and create social distance was ranked 10^th and last on the hierarchy list of impacts. The paper concluded that, the pandemic has both social and economic impact on people’s lives and livelihoods and it has push many people into poverty and many have lost their sources of  livelihoods. The paper recommended suspension of taxes on small scale businesses, provision of soft and long-term loans to small and medium scale businesses, and provision of scholarship to both primary and secondary schools to reduce out of school children in order to protect the future of the younger generation.

Keywords: Livelihoods, Makurdi, Socio-economic impacts, coronavirus