Mitigating the Recessional Impact of COVID-19 on Nigerian Economy through Agricultural Enterprises Promotion
Summary
COVID-19 is undoubtedly depressing the world economy and the Nigerian economy is no exception. The economic slowdown is triggering food and non-food price shocks with declining income to small, medium, and large- scale businesses. This paper examines the implications of COVID-19 pandemic on the Nigerian economy and highlights how the promotion of agricultural enterprises can help to mitigate the recessional impact arising from the pandemic. The paper is extensively theoretical and conceptual in its nature. Findings show that COVID-19 pandemic, though a threat to lives and the economy, has provided opportunities in some enterprises. Digital technologies have become a positive enabler facilitating business continuity and connecting people more than ever in the phase of economic paralysis due to lockdown and movement restriction of people. The paper concludes that scaling up of innovations in agribusiness enterprises will save the country from the imminent deleterious impact of COVID-19. Digital agriculture solutions and e-commerce are required in order to stimulate food production, processing, and marketing during and after the pandemic. Active measures are required to reduce food wastes and losses that may arise from supply chain bottlenecks. Provision of subsidies to food producers and reduction of import tariffs will assist investors in agribusinesses to continue their activities. The government could temporarily review taxation policy on imported goods to compensate for potential cost increases and the impact of the devaluation of the currency.
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