Economic Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Sustenance of Service Providers: Commercial Motorcycle Transport Operators in Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria

Abstract

These resources are expected to translate to better economic environment such as increased GDP and reduced external debt. On the contrary, a greater number of the populace suffer and live a low keyed status which manifest in unemployment, poverty, and diseases despite the abundance of these resources. The quest for survival by mitigating these sufferings has driven so many Nigerians into various informal sector jobs. These categories of people in the informal job sector rely majorly on income generated on daily basis. Their daily income is barely sufficient needless to talk of savings. Among the leading jobs by the people include sales of fast moving consumer goods, various service rendition, and transportation. Transportation is a unique form of service rendition. It is the movement of people and goods from source to destination without which comparative advantage will not be derived and all nations and locations left to focus on that aspect where they produce alone. Among the various means of transportation that serve to connect the world at the intercontinental and continental front is air travel; majorly to transport people, and ship majorly to transport cargo. There is also rail, majorly connecting one region of a place to another. Likewise there are buses for movement of people and goods within relatively short distances compared with aircraft. Motorcycle transport service is one of the essential transport services rendered by people who have carved a niche for themselves as a day to day activity in order to commute people within a relatively short distance, shortest in comparison to all other types of transport. This is because social infrastructure in the country such as roads and public transport arrangement are in poor state and this has given way for individuals to take advantage and develop business plans that give them the opportunity of making a living by keying into that area of the economic system where a lacuna was observed. The state of transportation in the land is so bad to the extent that members of the populace who have personal vehicles sometimes abandon their vehicles to catch up with commercial motorcycle due to the nature of the roads and heavy traffic situation. This they do in order to beat time for an appointment. Various reasons can be adduced for the movement of people from one place to another on regular basis. The study location, Ile-Ife hosts the Obafemi Awolowo University with students' population of about 35,000 as well as a teaching hospital that attends to thousands of people on regular basis. In addition, there is also the presence of eight out of the 22 Dr. Akinyoade, A.

Effects of Covid-19 Pandemic on the Livelihood Activities of Iwo Inhabitants in Osun State

“…The spread of Covid-19 across the globe including Nigeria has threatened the survival of livelihood as people took a break from their livelihood activities for safety of life. Studies about impact of covid-19 such as (Adam et al 2020, Akinyoade et al, 2020 mainly focused on food insecurity, poverty, mobility restriction amongst others with no emphasis on the pandemic's impact on livelihoods of business owners and farmers whose services were considered essential when the pandemic was at its peak. To fill this gap, the study sought to establish empirical evidence of Covid-19 pandemic on livelihoods of farmers and business owners in Iwo town, Osun State.…”