COVID-19 in the African Continent

This chapter provides an understanding of the state of social protection mechanisms in the Southern African Development Community region and gives reference to two cases from the same region in relation to their social protection response during the COVID-19 pandemic. Secondary data were used to provide an understanding of social responsive measures to mitigate poverty during the COVID-19 pandemic in the region. Existing literature, policies and programmes relative to the social measures to mitigate poverty during the COVID-19 in South Africa and Zimbabwe were reviewed. The study highlighted the importance of preparedness of governments to respond to shocks in order to provide social protection to citizens. It further highlighted the need to adopt more sustainable strategies to help mitigate the effects of pandemics and the need to cushion citizens from the socio-economic effect of future pandemics.

The lockdown and physical distancing precautions to curtail the increase of COVID-19 in Africa nearly shut down economies across the continent, caused slow trade, and triggered mass poverty. Hence, the need for Africa to be interconnected with the world economy by reforming its legal systems for swift post-COVID-19 economic recovery, to utilise the legal system in addressing socio-economic shocks. The weaknesses in Africa's legal systems in response to socio-economic shocks uncovered a critical threat to humanity, despite efforts, limited resources and strategies put in place. This research adopts a library-based doctrinal legal research technique with a critical review and conceptual approach by relying on the existing literature. The aim is to explore the potency of the existing legal frameworks, such as the African Continental Free Trade Agreement and the Economic Community of West African States Protocol, to combat socio-economic shocks in Africa's Economy. The study carries out a comparative appraisal of the legal system in Ghana, Angola, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria for useful insights in suggesting conversion of the pandemic to blessings by reforming their legal systems to embrace technologies to guarantee speedy economic recovery strategies. The study proposes a model for speedy economic recovery via legal instruments to support commercial activities. It ends with recommendations such as the reformation of the legal system to mitigate jobs losses and embrace technologies. Adopting alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, strict implementation of African Continental Free Trade Agreement for economic resilience against future economic shocks.

Many countries across the planet are facing unprecedented challenges because of COVID-19 infections and Nigeria inclusive. Although the 1999 constitution of Nigeria clearly states that security and welfare of the citizens are the primary purposes of government, the COVID-19 situation in Nigeria has exposed the government's attitude towards insecurity ravaging the country. Against this backdrop, this study focused on insecurity during COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria to ascertain the policy gaps and prospects for inclusive security outfits. The study was anchored on institutional theory. Data for the study were drawn from participant observation and authentic secondary sources. The study identified that Nigeria has been held hostage by criminality of bandits, kidnappers, protests, etc. The study recommended among others that government should take advantage of the recent security loopholes in the country to establish a state police. This will lead to significant improvement in police service delivery.

African Economies are a mix of emerging and developing economies, characterised by regional imbalances and socio-economic differences. Foreign Direct Investment and Trade has been important for the growth prospects of African Economies. In this paper, we attempt to study the impact of FDI and Trade in a COVID-19 scenario on the African Economies. We also study the lockdown restrictions in different regions of Africa. Applying Neural Network Analysis for the sample of 36 African Economies we identify the significant economic variables for GDP. The analysis based on a feedforward structure suggests that Merchandize Exports (MEXP) and Foreign Direct Investment Stock (FDIS) have very strong causal linkages with the GDP for African Economies sample. On the other hand, Merchandise Imports (MIMP), Services Exports (SEMP), Services Imports (SIMP), and Foreign Direct Investment Inflows (FDII) have a strong and significant relationship with GDP for the African Economies. Tariff Measures (TRFF), Anti-Dumping measures (ADP) and Foreign Direct Investment Outflows (FDIO) have no significant relationship.

Socio-economic shocks have been the sources of burden to smallholder farmers, and the recent COVID-19 pandemics, can be termed a shock that could lead to distortions in the operations of the commodity value chain. The study, therefore, examined the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on income and access to economic input such as labour, seeds, fertilisers, herbicides, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was carried out in Kano State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was employed in the selection of 260 respondents comprising producers (115), marketers (60), processors (46) and transporters (29). Primary data were collected from stakeholders in tomato value chain through the use of a structured questionnaire. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics. Findings revealed that tomato value chain in Kano State, Nigeria, is male-dominated. The average age of stakeholders ranged between 43 years (transporters) and 51 years (processors). Results further revealed a significant relationship in income of marketers' pre- and during COVID-19 pandemic. However, non-significant relationship was observed in the income of producers, processors and transporters prior and during COVID-19 pandemic. There was also no significant difference in the economic value of seeds, manure and fertiliser before and during COVID-19 pandemic. The most important constraints to the producers were the high cost of farm chemical procured while the marketers were confronted with high cost of transportation. The processors were faced with high processing cost and transporters experienced request for undue levies by market authorities. The study recommends that mechanism be devised to improve availability of inputs to producers and dissemination of adequate market information to stakeholders in the tomato value chain regularly to improve contribution of the commodity to food security and economic development.

Within relatively short time since its emergence, COVID-19 pandemic has attracted impressive academic attention. This chapter in its modest complement of existing studies focused on artisans' disposition and adherence to preventive measures of coronavirus disease in Osun State, Nigeria. The participants according to its findings demonstrated their knowledge of public health advice for controlling COVID-19 such as maintaining social distancing, using face masks in public spaces and adhering to personal hygiene measures. It further revealed that these artisans sourced for ‘perceived’ alternatives public health measures that their financial situation could accommodate and violated the strict lockdown regulations introduced by the government due to inherent economic rewards from going to their places of works. These thus exposed the poor investment profiles of most African nations as well as unhealthy institutional capacity, which cannot carry people along with government policies. A situation of this nature will have untoward effects on social fabric of the society and overall developmental processes.

This chapter examines how women understand and account for their behaviour concerning the traditional forms of communication that underpin the ideology of motherhood, which has been socially constructed as a critical aspect of womanhood. The participants were selected through purposive sampling where 60 women participated in focus group discussions. The findings revealed that women's breastfeeding knowledge and attitudes, as well as their degree of education, were all connected to their practice of exclusive breastfeeding, while cultural views were also connected to breastfeeding practices. The study recommends that mothers and the public be better educated about the benefits and importance of exclusive breastfeeding.

Taking a gender-sensitive approach, this study examines the socio-economic and institutional drivers of household vulnerability to the shocks occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study employs country-level panel data for Nigeria. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's chi-square, and ordered logistic regression. The study found significant heterogeneity in vulnerability to the COVID-19 shocks between the male-headed households (MHHs) and female-headed households (FHHs) (p < 0.1). The econometric results reveal that in the MHHs, the geographical location, livelihood diversification, and ownership of television were the significant drivers of vulnerability to COVID-19–related shocks. In the FHHs, credit constraints, household size, value of the household assets, geographical location, ownership of television and radio, and experiences of previous shocks were found to be significant drivers of vulnerability to COVID-19–related shocks. This study provides insights for designing inclusive social protection interventions and gender-sensitive COVID-19 recovery policies.

Entrepreneurial activities can be affected by shocks including pandemics. Our study aims at exploring the channels through which Covid-19 pandemic and associated government responses affected entrepreneurial activities, and the opportunities that were created, accessed or utilised in response to the Pandemic. We identified six of these channels. The adverse impact of the Pandemic and different government responses to the Pandemic on economic growth caused the Pandemic to impact more on entrepreneurship. Growth contraction had implications on aggregate demand, expectations of future incomes especially for informal and small businesses, values of assets, and investment levels. However, the Pandemic presented some utilised, unutilised and partially utilised opportunities for entrepreneurship and our study notes that a critical juncture was truncated and wasted by Nigerians because unutilised opportunities included investment in R&D, hospitals and medical supplies, ICT and online businesses.

Informal associations are typical features of farm and non-farm ventures especially within rural communities. Owing to the informality of these associations, members of the groups usually evolve strategies to cope with different kinds of economic and social shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic or unexpected economic recessions. Accordingly, entrepreneurship and non-farm business development in rural areas require massive finance input, which this group largely lacks owing to agrarian activities which is the main source of revenue. Therefore, to inform rural development policies, this chapter draws on the interrelationships that exist between finance options (including formal, informal and social networks) and small business development. Using the World Bank Living Standards Measurement Survey – Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA), the analytics identifies informal financing and social networks as leading alternatives to formal financing option in rural businesses. Therefore, we suggest that the government institutions recognise and formalise informal finance systems. This will not only aid access to government interventions and programmes, but foster collaborations with existing formal institutions and investors for sustainable rural business financing.

The economic importance of palm oil produced by its producers in food requirement, income generation, production and consumption has led to a significant increase in its demand over the years. Thus, this chapter evaluates the effects of palm oil price fluctuations on the welfare of palm oil producers in Nigeria based on annual time series data (1980–2018). In achieving its objectives, the study employs Autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL). The result establishes the presence of a long-run relationship in the welfare of palm oil producers. The long-run estimates show that palm oil prices had a positive but insignificant relationship with the welfare of palm oil producers. In the short-run estimates, palm oil price and the exchange rate had adverse and significant effects on the welfare of palm oil producers, while the inflation rate positively and significantly influenced welfare. Therefore, the welfare programme should adopt policies that will stabilise the palm oil price and other foodstuffs to increase the standard of living of palm oil producers and raise their literacy levels.

This study contributes to the debate about the sustainability of Chinese loans in Africa. The literature suggests that economic growth is among other crucial debt dynamic indicators for assessing debt sustainability in the economy. However, this hypothesis has hardly been tested in the current case due to data ambiguities on Chinese loans to Africa. Following China Africa Research Initiative (CARI)'s initiative to ameliorate these data challenge, this study utilises CARI's dataset in a GMM panel VAR framework for the period (2000–2018) to explore the dynamic relations between Africa's growth and Chinese loans. The methodology is theoretically underpinned by the exogenous growth models that consider physical capital accumulation in the form of savings as a prime growth stimulus in the economy's production function. Thus, Chinese loans are typically viewed as physical capital input that directly adds to Africa's physical capital accumulation. It was found that Africa's growth responds positively to Chinese loans but only in the short run. In the long run, the effects of shocks to Chinese loans on Africa's growth phase out despite the inclusion of merchandise trade as a productivity factor in the model. The findings suggest that Chinese loans can boost Africa's growth through physical capital accumulation. Nonetheless, for growth to continue in the long run, these loans ought to be effectively invested in productive economic sectors that can generate productivity-enhancing economic incentives and enough savings for repayment. This initiative should be complemented by reforming institutions involved in acquiring, investing and servicing Chinese loans.

The resistance of the energy sector in recent time has been tried by COVID-19 as the occurrence has added to the dampening down demand for crude oil which has resulted in volatility in prices and dwindling production of crude oil at the global crude oil market. Dwindling demand and price decline can also be perceived as a trend in the electricity sector, the electricity price (ELECTP) and consumption. The consequences of individual policy response by countries in relation to the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 is yet to be known, and recent studies conducted in the continent are yet to document the impact of the pandemic on the oil-producing African countries. It is in the light of this that this study determined the effect of socio-economic shocks activated through the COVID-19 pandemic on the energy sector performance and economic development of Africa. Monthly data were sourced from the United States Energy Information Administration, COVID-19 geographic distribution worldwide, World Development Indicator and Trading Economics from 2019 (m12) to 2020 (m10). Seventeen oil-producing African countries were selected across the region based on data availability. The structural panel vector auto regression (SPVAR) analytical technique was used in estimating COVID-19 pandemic and socio-economic shocks on the energy sector performance proxied by oil production (OILP), ELECTP and economic development proxied by gross domestic product per capita (GDPPC) of the countries. Findings revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic transmits a negative shock to OILP and GDPPC while a positive shock is transmitted to ELECTP. The socio-economic variables also transmitted both the positive and negative shocks to OILP, ELECTP and GDPPC. Therefore, the study recommended that policies should be directed towards putting in place a shock-absorbing mechanism so as to cushion the effect of the identified shocks on the performance of the energy sector and the economic development of the countries.

This chapter examined COVID-19 Impact on Small and Medium Scale Agro-Allied Enterprises (SSAMEs) in Southwest, Nigeria with a view to cushion the effects of the pandemic on these enterprises. The study made use of descriptive survey design using both primary and secondary data. Primary data were sourced through questionnaire administered to 438 owners/mangers and in-depth interviews conducted with selected executive members of National Association of Small and Medium Scale Industries (NASMSI). The findings revealed that COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted almost all the investigated firms. These impacts included: job losses, bankruptcy, inadequate staff strength; insufficient raw materials, lack of access to equipment and services; inability to access finance, and closed sales outlets. The study made recommendations to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on SSAMEs which included: lifting of ban on boarder closure; provision of palliative measures, partnership with local and financial services providers; provision of technical assistance among others.

This chapter explores the adverse effects of COVID-19 lockdown on Nigerian households and offers suggestions for tackling the household conflicts, which is relevant to the society, and its contributions towards the broad economic activities in Nigeria. It adopts a conceptual approach, relying on extant literature and other relevant materials. The research draws on these references to project a model of the critical effects of COVID-19 faced by Nigerian households during COVID-19 pandemic. The study highlights the fundamental issues responsible for conflict among households in Nigeria during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Also, it unearths learning about the critical sources of household conflict; and explores the effects on households in Nigeria due to the lockdown. Weak enforcement of the provision of extant laws to curb domestic violence in Nigeria and inadequate punishments prescribed in the laws to discourage household conflicts. The chapter concludes with the need for a better legal framework that can regulate household conflicts. It, also, emphasises on increased government effort to intervene in household challenges, especially during an emergent issue such as COVID-19 pandemic. The study also suggested the need for a broad social services structure in Nigeria that can provide social security to households during an unexpected emerging situation such as COVID-19. The Violence Against Persons laws should be stringently enforced to discourage violence, to protect members of every household in Nigeria and to compensate the victims adequately for any loss or injury suffered due to violation of their rights.

African countries inevitably take loans due to lack of fiscal space more so, due to the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic in Africa, several loans and bailouts are expected from the West. These loans come with conditions which have policy implications. This study aims at examining the impact of loans received by selected African countries from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank during the period 1994 to 2020. The study makes use of a cross sectional panel data analysis and quantile regression models. Results indicate that IMF loans had a positively but insignificant impact on GDP whilst World Bank loans and debt service to export ratio negatively affect GDP. These finding suggest that loans are not a necessary evil in Africa but what matters is targeting debt towards growth priorities. This study recommends that policies should be put to direct the use of loans towards economic growth and sustainability in Africa.

The study investigated the contributions of household farming in palliating the economic effect of COVID-19 during the lockdown period. The study was questionnaire-based involving 510 participants randomly drawn from 17 Local Government Areas in Enugu State. Data were collected on demographic data, household expenditure, farm plots size, crops cultivated, sufficiency and extent farm produce contributed to palliating the effect of COVID-19 shocks. Data analysis used descriptive statistics, PCA and ANOVA. 89% households were fully involved in farming during the lockdown which positively impacted on household economy and especially SDGs 2 and 12. The lockdown improved household food production and pushed towards a positive behavioral change towards food security. 85% households indicated interest in expanding their farm size after the pandemic. Land and capital unavailability were significant barriers to taking farming as a major occupation. Several policy options were proposed to improve food production at household levels to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 crisis on food security.

A study conducted by UN Habitat (2020) revealed that financing of investment in African growing cities has become an impediment amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Close to USD 93 billion is needed to finance urban development in Africa. The prevalence of COVID-19 pandemic impacted negatively on the independence of African cities to raise revenue or incur long-term debt to finance their development. Several local governments in African cities are not positioned enough to ensure quality standards of living for their people. This is because many local authorities in African cities cannot intervene in various emergencies or crises which pose a danger to people given the COVID-19 pandemic era where strategic government interventions are essential to save the lives of the people. Burdened by the need to respond to COVID-19, many African governments have diverted their attention from the smart city ideology which demands stable financial revenues and redirected their efforts towards mitigating the scourge of the pandemic. Drawing from this background, therefore this chapter reports on the three selected African cities (Johannesburg, Lagos and Accra) because of their experiences regarding COVID-19, and their responses to the pandemic towards achieving a smart city in Africa. The chapter is guided by the following specific objectives: To examine the unintended consequences of COVID-19 on the achievement of Smart Cities in three African Cities; to assess the opportunities and challenges of achieving smart cities amid COVID 19 in three African Cities; and to determine how rapid urbanisation affects the achievement of Smart Cities amid COVID-19 in three African Cities. Qualitative thematic analysis was used to analyse data acquired from secondary sources.

COVID-19 has affected the lives and well-being of frontline workers including Social Workers and Social Auxiliary Workers. The purpose of this chapter was to explore the experiences of social workers and social auxiliary workers in the COVID-19 working environment. This chapter adopted a critical discourse analysis whereby articles were purposively selected to explore the challenges faced by the selected group of workers in executing their duties in the COVID-19 environment. The findings of this chapter revealed that Social Workers and Social Auxiliary Workers in South Africa are experiencing critical shortages of personal protective clothing and this has affected their capacity to effectively render services to individuals, groups and families. The findings indicated further that, Social and Auxiliary Workers experienced mental health issues that include stress, anxiety, fear, role conflict and work overload which was detrimental to quality service provision to their clients. The chapter calls for the National Department of Health to increase access to personal protective clothing to enable frontline workers to execute their mandates in a safe environment. The chapter also recommends for the government of South Africa to enhance its social welfare role through the access of the COVID-19 Relief Packages via the Department of Social Development to support struggling communities during COVID-19.

The concept of a ‘green new deal’ for Africa will provide a joined-up approach to managing the impact of extreme climatic events. In this regard, the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) green deal arrangements offer Africa lessons to consider in a green agenda. By recourse to green theory, which is a critique of existing power structures and nationalistic and political positions concerning climate change, we explore mechanisms for fostering collective action and collaboration through an African green deal. Building on the African Union's existing agencies and arms, this chapter argues that an African Union Green Deal post–COVID-19 is crucial to achieving sustainable economic growth and development within the continent's Agenda 2063. The African continent should take advantage of collaboration opportunities within the continent and the European Union, thereby strengthening its financing and governance structures.

This chapter examined the financial effects of COVID-19 pandemic on the Nigerian tourism by disaggregating the tourism sector into transportation industry, accommodation industry, travelling agencies, resorts/tourist site and regulatory agencies. Specifically, this study only targeted 240 key players in the Nigerian Tourism sector in Lagos state while the sourced data were analysed using Pearson correlation analysis. The result revealed that the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic has a negative statistical influence on both the transportation and accommodation industry. The financial implication of this result is that the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic increased the cost of transport, sharply reduced revenue inflow into the transportation and accommodation industry Again, the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic exerted positive significant influence on Travel agency and resort/tourist site. However, the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic exerted positive insignificance influence on regulatory agency. Hence, the study concluded that the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic increased the cost of transport, sharply reduced revenue inflow into accommodation industry, increased travel agency and resort/tourist site costs. Premised on this, the study recommends that the federal government should ensure that the cost of transportation is subsidized, as this would help to correct the negative effect of COVID-19 on the Nigerian transportation industry.

Digital technologies have become significant as organisations, including financial institutions, attempt to adopt enhanced and more efficient approach for service provisions to customers. Despite the obvious shift to digitalised methods of service delivery, some financial institutions argued that though digitisation may increase financial efficiency and profitability, it also poses new risks and potential threats with significantly unanticipated side effects, especially, with respect to employment. Against this background, this study examined how the following cashless policy instruments: Mobile banking, Automated Teller Machine (ATM) and Point of Sale (POS) Terminal, influence financial transactions in Lagos, Nigeria; using Zenith Bank PLC as a case study. Structured Questionnaire was administered to 100 Zenith bank customers. The study applied the logit regression method and findings showed that 54% respondents use mobile banking daily, 39% respondents use ATM daily, 25% respondents use POS daily. On an overall scale, mobile banking is widely used and mostly preferred. Also, results showed that while POS has a significant relationship with financial transactions, Mobile banking, and ATM both have an insignificant relationship. Results from the study encourage the management of CBN to create more awareness of these instruments, and likely increase the number of these instruments.

Following the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, including the evolving health safety regulations, opening and closing of businesses, shortage of healthcare workers, especially nurses, restrictions on international travels, and the associated elimination of tourism services, it has been an unprecedented period for companies, communities and governments. These research chapters discuss socioeconomic shocks and development from Africa's experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic. This book has presented national and regional issues that cut across selected United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), with a specific focus on public health systems, food security, peace or conflicts resolutions, gender diversity, state effectiveness, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), poverty alleviation, foreign direct investment (FDI), trade and its facilitation, environmental sustainability, green recovery plan and financial inclusion. Based on these coronavirus pandemic related development challenges as contained in this book, the purpose of this conclusion chapter is three-folds: (1) wrap up this edited book project; (2) suggest relevant preparedness strategies for Africa if similar pandemic occurs in the future; (3) propose emerging areas of future research.