Covid-19 and insecurity: a moderating effect of growth of micro enterprises in south east of Nigeria

Abstract

The study examines the relationship between COVID-19 and insecurity as a moderating effect of growth of Micro enterprises in South East of Nigeria. As the methodology, close ended questionnaire was administered to the respondents who were the owners of micro enterprises in South East of Nigeria. The variables used were number of infections, number of tests carry out, number of reported cases and number of deaths which were used as measures of COVID-19 and insecurity were measured with bombing, suicide bomb attacks, sporadic shooting of unarmed and innocent citizens, burning of police stations, churches, kidnapping of school girls and women, while growth were measured using expansion, survival, number of employees, and capital employed. The population of the study is the entire Micro enterprises in South East of Nigeria and the sample size of 389 was derived using Taro Yamane formula. The variables were tested for reliability and result showed that all the variables were reliable. The study used Partial Least Square Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) to test the hypotheses and to determine if there is an effect of independent variables on dependent variable.As a result it is found that COVID-19 is significant in enhancing insecurity among Micro enterprises in South East of Nigeria and COVID-19 is significant in enhancing growth of Micro enterprises in South East of Nigeria while insecurity is insignificant in achieving growth of Micro enterprises in South East of Nigeria. Therefore, Government of Nigeria should re-emphasis on insecurity and COVID-19 and provide adequate solution or ways of minimizing these problems to grow the Micro enterprises in South East of Nigeria.