Global Microeconomic Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights by Sulaiman Bashir

Microeconomic Impact of COVID 19 Pandemic: Global Perspective By Sulaiman Bashir Email: is_bashir@yahoo.co.uk Mobile phone number: +2348031802233 Department of History & Strategic Studies Federal University Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State, Nigeria

Introduction Towards the end of the second decade of the twenty first century (c.21st), the world witnessed another pandemic known as Covid-19 which was first discovered in Wuhan Province of the Peoples Republic of China. The pandemic has a similar symptoms of a common cold, but, this time the pandemic has a more devastating effect on human health than the ordinary cold and other respiratory syndromes like SARS, MERS and others. Apart from the fact that it is contagious, it can also lead to sudden untimely death if proper care is not taken. It may also lead to severe health problems and complications to patients already suffering from health related issues such as high blood pressure and asthma among others. Due to its devastating effect on health, the Pandemic severity was more among grown up adults within the age range of sixty years and above. Whereas, toddlers and those below ten years of age are the most vulnerable. To curtail the health scourge, measures have been taken globally not to only to treat the affected ones, but also to produce effective vaccines against it and apart from social measures such as: social distancing, work at home, report to health authorities in case of any of the related symptoms e.t.c The Covid-19 Pandemic therefore had myriad effects on the society at large. It is based on these aspects that this write up will focus with particular emphasis on the Microeconomic impact aspect of it on a global scale; with issues such as the impact of the pandemic on the value of time in business, job losses, the impact of the pandemic on the economy due to poor health of the general public, the aspect of purchasing power during the pandemic and low investment and savings as well >

Microeconomic Impact of COVID-19: *Loss of Time One of the impact is that; It led to work overload on the health personnel especially the nurses whose shifting time was doubled and the ratio on the basis of nurse per patient was reviewed to 1:1 instead of 1:3 -1:5 as the case was. This has rob the personnel of their precious time they so often utilize to operate businesses for their economic gain especially local pharmaceutical stores and serving local populations as a business. As proper utilization of time in any business is paramount to its prosperity. * Jobs losses, Retrenchment and Poverty Jobs losses and retrenchment were some of the consequences that followed due to measures aimed to curtail the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. As some factories and industries were forced to reduce the number of workforce so as to decongest and maintain social distancing. Consequent upon, families and individuals were exposed to poverty as many household breadwinners were disengaged from services, and even those that remained had their pay slashed. * Poor Health Condition and Deaths Due to lockdown measures which affect international chain of demand and supply, drugs and other medical supplies fall short. And for this reason, some greedy individuals saw it as an opportunity to make and produce fake, substandard and counterfeit products for public consumption. This affected individual performance and productivity economically and socially as well. This serve to complicate individuals health and sometimes death.

*Low Purchasing Power As majority of people lost their means of earning a living due to Covid-19 Pandemic, coupled with the scarcity of basic necessities which results in rise in prices of commodities(inflation) and diminishing value of many notes (money/bills). This has spelt disaster for many individuals and families as meeting their daily needs continue to become a distant objective without commensurate increase in their earnings. > *Low Investment and Savings Investments and savings suffers during Covid-19 Pandemic. Investors hold on to their finances due to the uncertainties in many business ventures, as the pandemic control measures such as: travel restrictions, social distancing et-al continue to constitute a cog on the wheels to the smooth running of businesses, and therefore chances of realizing profits or quick return on invested is doubtful. Conclusively we may see that; loss of time to see to the individual businesses for health workers and personnel. Also there were job losses due to non-operation of factories and companies as some of them were forced to halt operations, and therefore cannot afford to continue to pay their employers. More so, deterioration of health and death recorded during the pandemic was a great loss to the economy-as vibrant shareholders and prospective investors died without realizing their missions despite having the initial capital and managerial capacity to invest in the economy. Again, inflation rate reached unprecedented level as predatory loans and credits are constantly sought after to satisfy needs, and in some instances to start up another business.