BUSINESS PERFORMANCE OF MSMES AMIDST THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC LOCKDOWN: A CASE STUDY OF THE FOOD AND BEVERAGE SECTOR

Covid-19 pandemic had created the “new normal” in our society and this has led to a colossal economic loss for lots of businesses across the globe. This study intends to evaluate the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on business performance of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in food and beverage sector within the Ikeja local government, Lagos Nigeria. Structured questionnaire was developed and was divided into four parts: The demographic, financial, sales and operational performance. The financial, sales and operational performance scales were with 3 different periods (pre Covid-19 lockdown, Covid-19 lockdown and partial Covid-19 lockdown) with respect to the Covid-19 pandemic (15 items). Financial performance before Covid-19 lock down and lockdown and partial lockdown era shows r= -0.762 and 0.436 respectively at p<0.01. Also, financial performance during lockdown and partial lockdown era is r= -0.438 at p<0.01. Financial performance and sale with operational performance during Covid-19 lock down period shows r= -0.284 and 0.210 respectively at p=0.004 and p=0.032 respectively. There was no statistically significant difference with the years of business experience [F(2, 101) =0.251, p=0.779] on financial performance during Covid-19 lockdown. On how effect of the Covid-19 pandemic was felt on business performance with gender, there was no statistically significant difference between males and females on the combined dependent variables: F (5,102) =1.308, p=0.267; Wilks’ Lambda=0.937; partial eta squared=0.063, The Covid-19 pandemic with the lockdown that associate with it had a negative impact on the financial performance of the MSMEs that were involved in this study when compared with the period when there was no lockdown.