Impact Of Covid 19 On Micro, Small And Medium Self Financed Businesses Among Single Mothers In Sapele Metropolis

: The MSME Survival Fund was expected to assist the private sector in broadening the country's economy, with an emphasis on women in particular. Understanding how the MSME survival fund programme affects the mechanisms can be exploited to ensure the long-term viability of small and medium businesses is critical. This investigated the impact of COVID-19 on small and medium self-financed businesses among single mothers in Sapele Metropolis as well as the effectiveness of MSMEs survival fund in ameliorating the effect of COVID-19 on MSMEs business. 256 singles mothers were sample for the study multistage sampling procedure which comprises of stratified random sampling technique, purposive sampling technique and accidental sampling technique. The stratified sampling technique was used to sample 8 major communities in Sapele Metroplis. Accidental sampling was used to select 32 single mothers that own MSMEs from each of the communities. The study adopted a validated questionnaire titled “impact of COVID-19 on MSMEs business with a reliability index of 0.87. The data was analysed using mean, standard deviation, percentage, and Chi Square were used in analysing the data in SPSS version 25. The study found that COVID-19 caused unprecedented reduction in business contract; reduction in access to products/raw materials; reduction in production capacity; reduction in delivery of goods and services; and reduction in sales volume. 18.14% and 25.00% of the single mothers who own self-financed MSMEs accessed the MSMEs survival grant and loan respectively. COVId-19 had a negative strong impact on business operations while MSMEs survival fund had no significant impact on the revitalizations of Business operations of Single mother entrepreneurs. It was critical recommendations among others that Government should make preparations for occurrences like COVID-19, which are likely to have a negative impact on organisations.


Introduction
The COVID-19 epidemic continues to have a profound effect on people's daily lives in unanticipated ways. The worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 has sparked fear, panic, worry, uncertainty, and other forms of emotional disorder among a wide range of individuals and small enterprises. Many households and businesses were caught off guard and unprepared by the pandemic's accompanying shocks, in part because it was not anticipated. A new level of economic hardship was caused by the epidemic in households' economies. There is no treatment for the ravenous virus as of yet, despite the efforts of many governments to restrict its spread. The virus's persistence affected the employment rate, household income, and food security of the country. Many people, particularly in rural areas, lost their jobs, saw their incomes plummet, and had to deal with a spike in food insecurity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Most children have been out of school for six to eight months, and very few of them have been involved in educational activities. Immediately following the lockouts, employment levels plummeted, but quickly rebounded in the following months. In Nigeria, for example, the employment rate was 85% prior to COVID-19. When lockdown measures were implemented, selfreported employment in Nigeria plummeted by 43%. After the COVID-19 lockdown, Nigeria's unemployment rose to 71 percent in June and to 82 percent in July, as a result of different government programmes aimed at protecting the economy (CMI Report, 2020).
It is a very common practice in Sapele local government area to see single mothers with their baby on their back engaging in different types of businesses of producing locally made food of extractions, baking, cooking, tailoring, hair dressing, buying and selling different commodities, like bread, fishes, oranges, mangos, roasting of plantain and many others. All this self-financed business got their own negative impact during the peak of covid-19 pandemic. The success of any business whether small or medium self-financed, depends on continuity, turnover or rollover, enabling environment and stable economic forces. The Dollinger's push and pull factor of entrepreneurs according to (Wicharm, 2001) identifies the main impetus for entrepreneurs to be their desire to create change and to make a difference, the push and pull factors are categorised into the negative displacement, being between things, positive push and positive pull. The push factor was more of what this paper anchored on in discussing the impact of covid-19 on small and medium self-financed business among single mothers. Single mothers as perceived in this paper are mothers with a least a child and is not with the father either through separation, divorce, or death. Recession, business failure, and other challenges that negatively influence any business venture whether small, medium, large scale or conglomerate need revival and resuscitation, hence this paper considered it that, single mothers who are negatively impacted as a result of the pandemic need to come back to business, so that they can cater for their families. It as result of this necessity that the federal government launched the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) survival fund.
The MSME Survival Fund was expected to assist the private sector in broadening the country's economy, with an emphasis on women in particular. At least 41% of micro-businesses in the country are owned by women, who have been given 60% of the MSME Survival Fund. A more equitable Nigeria can be achieved through empowering women and reducing the gender gap through these measures. As a result of the epidemic, single mothers who have been adversely affected need to return to business so that they may provide for their family.
In spite of numerous studies examining how a pandemic of COVID-19 might affect global and national economic indicators such as global poverty and government interventions, GDP growth, budget deficits, and employment (ILO 2020a;ILO 2020b;and Sumner et al. 2020;UN-Habitat and WFP 2020;World Bank 2020), little is known about how a pandemic of COVID-19 is associated with business of single mothers as well as how Survival fund has been accessed by the NMMEs owners. Understanding how the MSME survival fund programme affects the mechanisms can be exploited to ensure the long-term viability of small and medium businesses is critical. Government (MSME survival fund after COVID recovery methods) interventions have been shown to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 epidemic in Nigeria as well as the resulting lockdown limitations and their influence on other sectors of the Nigerian economy. In the event of a COVID-19 pandemic, the findings will help influence policy conversations about the ramifications and coping mechanisms for the sustenance of enterprises, as well as help single mother entrepreneurs who appear to be more vulnerable to the pandemic to maintain their livelihoods. This investigated the impact of COVID-19 on small and medium selffinanced businesses among single mothers in Sapele Metropolis as well as the effectiveness of MSMEs survival fund in ameliorating the effect of COVID-19 on MSMEs business. This investigated the impact of COVID-19 on small and medium self-financed businesses among single mothers in Sapele Metropolis. However, it explored the following specific objectives : 1) To establish the impact of COVID-19 on business operations of Micro, Small and Medium self-financed business among single mothers in Sapale Metropolis, 2) To Ascertain the single mothers business owners access to National MSME survival fund in Sapele Metropolis, 3) To determine to impact of National MSME survival fund in revitalizing MSM self-financed businesses as perceived by single mothers in Sapele Metropolis.

Theoretical Background The Impact of COVID-19 on MSMEs Operations
The lockdown has affected business and economic activity and undermined human and economic resources such as workers, materials, transport, etc. (Craven, Liu, Mysore, & Wilson, 2020). Many businesses have closed or their performance has suffered. The government's lockdown, restrictions on movement, the closing of the market, and social isolation have also slowed the transfer of goods and services, which SMEs need to run their businesses.
SMEs and their employees are part of the global social and economic systems. The coronavirus's unparalleled impacts threaten SMEs' crucial functions. Due to the worldwide recession, SME consumers and facilitators face bankruptcy (Wuen & Wu, 2020). In such settings, the government must regulate the infection, preserve employee pay, reduce long-term costs, and prevent corporate collapse. Therefore, urgent action with well-planned programmes and funds is needed (Weiwen et al., 2020). To win the pandemic war and restore business community peace, everyone must ensure that the infection has been reduced to a minimum through health authority regulations. Short-term pandemic effects should be known. Micro and macro measures should be supported by effective control instruments from the appropriate bodies.
As many economists have predicted, the COVID-19 pandemic will bring massive economic costs and a sharp increase in public debt to cover revenue losses. Sustaining the broad pandemic could cause a long global recession. A concrete, coordinated plan that combines monetary and financial sector policies, as well as commercial banks, becomes a motivating package for SMEs to pick up again. High governmental and private debt caused the financial sector's capital needs crisis (Frank, 2020). For SMEs, a microcredit incentive is required through microfinancial institutions with determined aims, but oversight and support should be the key to the financial institutions. Keeping firms' personnel is important. Grants for salaries, training, product innovation, and new production processes can help prevent organisational downsizing. Internal assessment programmes help companies understand their internal environment and improve productivity and business relationships (Matt, 2020).

Overview of Nigeria MSMES Survival Fund Scheme
In the second quarter of 2020, Nigeria's economy experienced a decline of 6 percent, marking the first quarterly recession since the first quarter of 2017 and the biggest decline since the first quarter of 2004. (NBS, 2020). The Nigerian Economic Sustainability Plan, which is estimated to cost $5.9 billion (N23 trillion), was adopted by the federal government of Nigeria in July of 2020 in order to solve the economic issues posed by the epidemic. The proposal has an estimated cost of one percent of GDP and is meant to boost and diversify the economy, maintain and create jobs, and give more protections to those who are impoverished. The National Medium, Small, and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) Survival Fund is another component of the Economic Sustainability Plan. Its purpose is to mitigate the negative effects that COVID-19 will have on the economy and foster an atmosphere in which small firms can survive. There are about 37 million micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria, and they are responsible for nearly 48 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). As a result of the severe constraints brought on by COVID-19, many micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria have either shut down or been forced to lay off employees. The Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSME) Survival Fund would provide financial assistance to the private sector in order to promote economic diversification, with a particular emphasis on women. Sixty percent of the Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprise (MSME) Survival Fund has been set aside specifically for female business owners, who are responsible for at least 41 percent of the nation's micro-businesses. As a result of these initiatives, women will gain more agency, the gender gap will be closed, gender equality and equal representation will be promoted, and Nigeria will become a more equitable nation (Nyong et al, 2021).
The Scheme is a grant that is intended to assist vulnerable micro and small businesses in completing their payroll commitments and to protect jobs within the MSME space from the impact of the swine flu pandemic. The objectives of the Survival Fund are as follows: to augment the pay roll obligations of businesses in the health, production, education, hospitality, and food production sectors; to provide 50,000 Naira grants to an additional 100,000 eligible MSMEs; and to stimulate direct local production in the 36 states of the Federation and the FCT by providing MSMEs in the production sector with funds to stimulate 'post COVID lockdown' off-take products. Over One Million and Seven Hundred Thousand (1,700,000) employment are expected to be preserved as a result of the initiative when it is fully implemented. And with a particular emphasis placed on micro, small, and mediumsized enterprises (MSME) that are 45 percent owned by women and 5 percent owned by people with special needs, as well as the provision of grants to selfemployed individuals, in particular service providers such as taxi drivers, bus drivers, ride share drivers, and artisans such as electricians and plumbers, amongst others. Despite the many obstacles presented to micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) by the COVID-19 pandemic, these businesses continue to make significant contributions to the economic growth of Nigeria. MSMEs, which stands for micro, small, and medium enterprises, are the engines that drive social and economic transformation on a worldwide scale. In 2017, Nigeria's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were responsible for 49.78 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), and the sector was comprised of 41,543,028 entities in 2017. According to the MSMEs report (2017), MSMEs have made significant contributions to the creation of wealth and the improvement of the socio-economic conditions of Nigeria's citizens. Ifekwem and Adedamola (2016) state that MSMEs contribute the following to the economy of Nigeria: the mobilisation of local resources; employment opportunities; equitable distribution of income; services of raw material; mitigation of rural-urban drift; generation and conservation of foreign exchange; and employment opportunities.

Empirical Review
It is proven that border closure and lockdown policies, which were among the COVID-19 prevention protocols, have significant influence on the demand and supply of goods and services. As a result, this study adopted demand and supply shock theories. A supply shock takes place whenever there is a rapid increase or decrease in the amount of a good, product, or service that is available. This causes an unexpected change in the cost of a good, product, or service, which has the effect of throwing off the equilibrium of the economy's overall price level. A negative supply shock experienced by the entire economy will, in the short run, cause the aggregate supply curve to shift to the left, resulting in a decrease in output and an increase in prices (Czech, 2013). A positive supply shock that affects the entire economy will cause an aggregate supply curve shift to the right, which will, in the short run, result in increased output and decreased prices for goods and services (Hall & Lieberman, 2012). When production efficiency goes up, there is a positive supply shock, which causes output to go up. This is called technological progress.
Nevertheless, an example of what is known as a demand shock is an abrupt increase or decrease in the demand for a product or service that only lasts for a limited amount of time. It is essential to keep in mind that a rise in AD results from a positive demand shock, whereas a decrease in AD results from a negative demand shock. In either of these two cases, there will be an effect on the prices of commodities, products, and services. When there is a greater demand for a particular good, product, or service, there is a corresponding shift to the right in the demand curve. This causes prices to go up. On the other hand, as demand goes down, the demand curve moves to the left, which causes prices to go down as well. Demand shocks can be caused by shifts in factors such as tax rates, money availability, government expenditures, and lockdowns due to outbreaks of infectious diseases like COVID-19.
The decrease in supply is what justifies the employment of these ideas in this study. This alone warrants their application. COVID-19 has had an effect on commercial and industrial networks. Additionally, the lockdown that was enforced by COVID-19 has resulted in an increase in unemployment as well as an increase in costs, in addition to a fall in demand for goods and services.
In the study of 5800 businesses (Bartik, et al., 2020), it was observed that 43 percent of the 5800 small enterprises were temporarily closed due to a COVID-19 epidemic. Because of restrictions on travel, a health-isolation programme, and the closure of industrial facilities, retailers are struggling to maintain operational stability both offline and online. Between March 28 and April 4, 2020, Bartik, et al. (2020) surveyed more than 580 SMEs. According to the results, the COVID disruption has caused a lot of people to lose their jobs, some businesses to close, and people to have many different ideas about how long the disruption will last.
The ongoing COVID-19 crises in Nigeria have prompted Aladejebi (2020) to analyse the impact and tactics of small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) in Nigeria. Three hundred and sixty small business owners from Lagos were asked to fill out 360 questionnaires as part of a survey research procedure. Only 342 of the 360 questions were able to be considered. There was a general consensus that the government was doing too little to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, which the participants saw as having a negative impact on revenue and wages. They also found that small businesses struggle to pay their debts, rent, and wages. People who filled out the survey said that the government should lower interest rates and make it easier to pay back loans and taxes.
On March 30, 2020, the economic lockdown of Nigeria's largest cities (Abuja, Lagos, and Ogun State) will take place, resulting in significant losses for the country's small-and medium-sized business owners, as well as a flight of capital from the stock market and a drop in oil prices (Ozili, 2020). Disruption in supply chains due to the travel ban, employees working from home, and directors being unable to attend board meetings are just a few of COVID-19's negative effects on businesses and their financial stability (KPMG, 2020). The lockdown of Nigeria's major cities and the present devaluation of the naira as a result of a decline in crude oil prices brought on by the COVID-19 Pandemic have had an effect on all areas of the Nigerian economy. As a supply chain disruption risk, the epidemic outbreak has been classified as recurring or irregular, as well as short or long-term, depending on the duration of the outbreak and its impact on the market (Chopra & Sodhi, 2004). According to Aladejebi, 2020, a few studies have been done on the impact COVID-19 has on MSMEs in Nigeria, but most of them focused on Lagos and Ibadan. A study is needed to find out how COVID-19 impacts MSMEs in Nigeria, particularly small and medium-sized firms, with a focus on the north-central region of the country.

Hypothesis
H1. COVID-1 had no significant impact on the business operations of of Micro, Small and Medium self-financed business among single mothers in Sapale Metropolis. H2. National Survival fund had no significant impact on revitalizing MSM selffinanced businesses as perceived by single mothers in Sapele Metropolis.

Methodology Design
This study adopted a descriptive survey design. The descriptive survey design was adopted because the study was aimed at collecting data specifically on impact of COVID-19 on MSME business. A descriptive survey according to Nworgu (2015), are those studies which aim at collecting data on, and describing in a systematic manner, the characteristic features or facts about a given population. Bularafa and Adamu (2021) adopted same study design while examine the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the small and medium scale business in Yobe State, Nigeria. Hence, the appropriateness of the adopted study design.

Population and Sample
The population for the study was made up of all the single mothers who own MSMEs in Sapele Metropolis. 256 singles mothers were sample for the study multistage sampling procedure which comprises of stratified random sampling technique, purposive sampling technique and accidental sampling technique. The stratified sampling technique was used to sample 8 major communities in Sapele Metropolis. Accidental sampling was used to select 32 single mothers that own MSMEs from each of the communities.

Instrument
The study adopted a validated questionnaire titled "impact of COVID-19 on MSMEs business with a reliability index of 0.87. The instrument was structured into two sections (section A and B). Section A consisted of demographic information of the respondents while section B consisted information about the impact of COVID-19 on MSMEs businesses.

Data Collection and Analysis
The questionnaire was administered by the researcher with the help of two research assistants. Data were collected within 8 days. A day was used to collect data from of the 8 sample communities. The data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Mean, standard deviation, percentage, and Chi Square were used in analysing the data in SPSS version 25.

Figure 1. Level of Education of the Respondents
Source : Data Processed, (2021) The data in figure 1 revealed that more than half (53%) of the respondents had secondary education, 31% had primary education, 15% had tertiary education while only 1% had no formal education.

Figure 2. Business Industry of the Respondents
Source : Data Processed, (2021) Figure showed that 28.63% of the single mother MSMEs owners were traders (engages in buying and selling of finished products), 23.79 provide general services such as hair dressing etc, 10.48% were agriculturists, 9.27% were in clothing and textile sector, 8.87% provide ICT services, 6.05% were engages in manufacturing of products, 4.84% run hospitality businesses, 4.44% were in educational sector while 3.63% deals on building and constructions. This results implies that females are still

Clothing and Tesxtiles Hospitality
Manifacture less in involved in construction business while heavily involved in buying and selling and provisions of services.

Figure 3. Number of years in Business
Source : Data Processed, (2021) Figure 3 disclosed that 35.48% of the single mothers in Sapele Metropolis has been running their businesses for 6-10 years, 31.85 has been in business for 1-5 years, 17.74% has been in business for 11-15 years while 14.92% have operated their business for 16 years and more access to products/raw materials with a mean score (3.40±0.851). This was followed by reduction in sales volume (3.35±0.838), reduction in production capacity (3.33±0.834), reduction in delivery of goods and services (33.31±0.829) and reduction in business contracts (3.17±0.791) on the aggregate, the mean score of (3.31±0.838) implies that the singles mother agreed that COVID-19 prevention measures caused unprecedented reduction in business contract; reduction in access to products/raw materials; reduction in production capacity; reduction in delivery of goods and services; and reduction in sales volume.  Table 2 revealed that 18.14% and 25.00% of the single mothers who own selffinanced MSMEs accessed the MSMEs survival grant and loan respectively. On the aggregate, only 21.57% of the single had access to the MSMEs survival fund. This result implies that majority of the single who perhaps 60% of the survival fund was earmarked for never had access to the fund. Hence, the MSMEs fund was not equitably distributed to the target population and such may hamper the realization of its objectives.  Table 3 showed the impact of COVID-19 Survival Fund on the revitalization of MSM self-financed Businesses among Single Mothers. From the date, the respondents agreed that the MSME fund moderate impacted revitalizations of delivery of goods and service and production capacity witt mean ratings of 2.54±0.634 and 2.50±0.636 respectively. While it has poor impact on business contract revitalization (2.11±0.528) and very poor impact on the revitalizations of access to products/raw materials (1.87±0.468) and sales volume (1.99±0.47). On the aggregate, the result revealed the single mothers agreed that MSMEs survival fund has poor impact on the revitalization of their business operations. This could be cause by poor access to the funds as could be seen in table 2.

Test of Hypothesis
Hypothesis 1: COVID-1 has no significant impact on the business operations of Micro, Small and Medium self-financed business among single mothers in Sapale Metropolis. Since χ2cal > χ2crit and P<0.05, the researcher rejected the null hypothesis. Hence, the alternative hypothesis which state that COVID-1 has significant impact on the business operations of Micro, Small and Medium self-financed business among single mothers in Sapale Metropolis was accepted. The cramer'a V of 0.613 revealed a strong association between COVID-19 and business operations of Micro, Small and Medium self-financed business. This implies that pandemic like COVID-19 impacts significantly on business at the grass root level. Hypothesis 2: MSMEs Survival fund has no significant impact on revitalizing MSM self-financed businesses as perceived by single mothers in Sapele Metropolis. Hence, the alternative hypothesis which state that MSMEs Survival fund has significant impact on revitalizing MSM self-financed businesses as perceived by single mothers in Sapele Metropolis. Was rejected. The cramer'a V of 0.030 revealed little or no association between MSMEs survival fund and revitalization of business operations of Micro, Small and Medium self-financed business. This implies that focus of MSME survival fund.

Discussion
This study explored the impact of COVID-19 on MSM self-financed business of Single mothers in Sapele Metropolis. The study focused on understanding how COVID-19 prevention and control measures affected the business operations such as production, sales, access to product and raw material, contracts and delivery goods and services. The result as shown in table 1 revealed that COVID-19 triggered a negative business operation activities, Hence, most single mothers that owned MSMEs experienced decline in production, sales, contract procurement, delivery of goods and services as well in access to product and raw materials. The impact was very strong according to date in table 4. This result is synonymous with Aderemi et al. (2020). These authors found that 57% managers administer that COVID-19 lockdown to a great extent has reduced sales while 29% MSMEs managers said the reduction in sales was extremely. They also reported reduction in contracts, productions, delivery services and availability of products. Bularafa and Adamu (2022) reported a similar result among MSMEs in Yobe State. Another study document that the strain on income and saving as a result, the pandemic was the most agreed upon a factors by the SMEs reflecting a generally negative impact on sales and revenues (Jugu & Obaka, 2020).
In order to ameliorate the declining business performance of MSMEs and to reduce the financial stress of people orchestrated by COVID-19 in Nigeria, the Federal Government of Nigeria launched MSMEs survival fund. The fund were offered as grants and loan. And 60% of the fund was set aside for women. Due this development and considering that much turn around has not been seen in the Nigeria economic sector since the implementation of this fund in 2020 and 2021, this study examined the access to the fund by single mothers that have self-financed business in sapele as evaluation of implementation success of the programme. Shockingly, the result in table 2 revealed that only 18.15% of the respondent accessed the grant and 25% accessed the loan. Aggregately, only 21.57% of the respondents had access to the MSMEs survival fund. This finding is in congruent with the findings of Jugu and Obaka (2020). Jugu and Obaka surveyed SME who engages in retail business in Nigeria and found that only 16% of them got financial assistants from the federal government. This result is uncalled for because a whooping sum of #75 billion was approved for 37 million MSMEs in Nigeria. Explicitly, the survival was not delivered to the target population and perhaps siphoned by the federal government officials.
Finally, this study investigated the impact of NMSE survival fund on the revitalization of MSMEs declining business specifically on sales, contracts, access to materials, service/goods delivery and productivity. The study found in table 3 and  table 5 that MSMEs survival had poor impact on the above mentioned business operation. The Cramer's V of 0.030 indicated no or little association between survival fund and revival and sustainability of MSMEs businesses of single mothers in Sapele Metropolis. Contrary the findings of this study, Daudi et al. (2022) found a significant effect of MSMEs survival fund enrolment on the income of rural entrepreneurs. According to their findings, enrolment in the MSME survival fund scheme increased income of rural entrepreneurs by 17.71% and 24.02% respectively. This contradictory result is explainable by the population difference. While the present study surveyed the public in general, taking into consideration observable heterogeneity of the entrepreneur's, Dauda et al. (2022) surveyed only entrepreneurs who are registered beneficiaries of MSMEs survival fund. Based on this, they also cautioned that, their results need to be interpreted with caution as they may be biased since they did not control for unobserved heterogeneity.

Conclusion
COVID-19 is a global infectious diseases that made mark on every aspects of human endeavours including health, politics and economy. One of the greatest aftermath consequences of COVID-19 is the increase economic hardship seen today in developed and developing countries but worst in developing countries like Nigeria. In Nigeria particular, the pandemic exacerbated the declining MSMEs business performance through negative impact on sales, services delivery, contract procurement, productivity and access to products and raw materials. Also, the economic revival programme designed to assist the struggling MSMEs has also failed to enhance the business activities of the entrepreneurs especially those of single mothers. This failure is caused by corruption and inequitable distributions the fund causing a very small proportion of the target population access to the fund. Based on the findings of the survey, the following two critical recommendations were made: 1). Preparations should be made for occurrences like COVID-19, which are likely to have a negative impact on organisations. 2). There should be a new government monitoring structure put into place in order to ensure that the government's financial assistance of company loans is used wisely to help firms grow and the national economy evolve following COVID-19, in particular.