Socio-economic Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic among Persons of Concern in North-Central Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed the effects of COVID-19 and socio-economic hardship imposed by the measures put in place to curtail the spread of the virus in North-Central Nigeria. The rationale is to harvest several dimensions of the impact of the pandemic on social, cultural, civil and political rights of PoCs, the host community members and other persons of concern in North-Central Nigeria. Household level data of the UNHCR database was used by the study. Data were analyzed mainly using descriptive statistics. Influence of COVID-19 on households’ food expenditure was analyzed using Consumer Price Index (CPI). Results of analysis revealed that COVID-19 has negatively impacted the socio-economic status of PoCs in North-Central Nigeria irrespective of their categories (refugees, IDPs, host) across states. The study found that restrictions imposed by government at all levels in order to curtail the spread of the virus has affected the income and livelihood of the PoCs, and consequently their wellbeing. Although, the depths and severity differ, however, a larger percentage (83.0%) of respondents experienced significant economic shock with limited access to basic needs. Apart from the hardship imposed by the restrictions, the rise in food prices (as revealed by the CPI also contributed a significant difficulty in socio-economic wellbeing. The situation was observed to be largely felt among those living on remittances (aged and students) and those with no current occupation or loss of job. The research found that PoCs have been denied access to social services like education, market and financial services. However, the significance of the challenge is that, the said group are highly vulnerable and were further subjected to all forms of social ill treatment like extortion, sexual abuse, among others. Although, some of the PoCs received a significant support from government and humanitarian actors, but incidence of poverty is still in commonplace. The situation therefore, calls for the need for advocacy and urgent intervention to reduce incidence of poverty as well as establishment of effective and adaptive mechanism that will foster restoration of life, social and economic activities among PoCs. The study recommends that government, UNCHR, other humanitarian organizations as well as development actors need to join forces in order to achieve more significant results.