CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The COVID-19 pandemic (produced by the SARS-CoV-2 virus) struck the world by storm in early 2020, spreading across countries. The Coronavirus is believed to have first spread in China in December 2019, before spreading to Thailand, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United States, Vietnam, Singapore, and other Western Pacific and South-East Asian countries, and then to Russia, Africa, and Latin America McLord (2020).
The first COVID-19 case was discovered in a hospital in Wuhan, China, as unidentified severe pneumonia. As a result, WHO proclaimed the virus a global pandemic on March 11, 2020, after it was previously identified as a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)” on January 30, 2020 (Cai et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2020). The rapid advent of the new coronavirus has had an unparalleled impact on the entire world. As a result, the issue has gained traction day by day, owing largely to the increasing prevalence of human-to-human transmission, which causes serious respiratory disorders and, more importantly, its unchecked lethality. In fact, almost 7 million people were infected with the virus over the course of six months, with about 434,796 persons dying and around 4,272,909 recovering (Worldometer, 2020). Due to a dearth of approved clinical vaccines to battle the virus, the international community decided to enact lockdown measures, which were initially implemented by China’s central government in Wuhan on January 23, 2020. This lockdown was applauded around the world, particularly by the United Nations.
Due to both predicted and unanticipated socioeconomic shocks that could be generated by the growing virus, a lockdown became an unavoidable choice.
Lockdown has been described as a government-imposed emergency reaction that requires people to remain indoors in the case of an outbreak. The final purpose of the lockdown strategy in the case of COVID-19 was to flatten the curve of the unique virus. All activity-based centers, such as schools, hotels, markets, religious buildings, and other places where a large number of people might congregate, will be closed as part of the exercise (NCDC, 2020; CDC, 2020; WHO, 2020).
Businesses and other economic sectors were all harmed as a result of these policies. While the most critical sectors were operating at a low level,
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
The virus was initially discovered in Nigeria on February 27, 2020, when an Italian citizen visiting the country tested positive for the virus, which is caused by SARS-CoV-2. On March 9, 2020, a Nigerian person who had contact with the Italian index case reported a second case of the virus in Ewekoro, Ogun State. The rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus has thrown countries around the world, including Nigeria, into a health crisis. The implementation of lockdown measures was deemed the greatest method for stopping the virus’s spread. However, this harsh but necessary move has an impact on important economic, corporate, and commercial services like delivery. During the Covid-19, delivery services as a type of business in Nigeria faced challenges.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on Nigeria’s delivery service. Other specific goals include the following:
Unveil the nature of Covid-19 lockdown effect on the use of delivery service.
Examine how many people used delivery services during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Examine the difficulties that delivery service businesses faced during the lockdown.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
a. What is the nature of the Covid-19 shutdown effect on Nigerian delivery services?
b. How widespread was the use of delivery services in Nigeria during the Covid-19 lockdown?
c. What difficulties did delivery service businesses face during the lockdown?
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The nature and use of delivery services in Nigeria will be revealed in this study on the influence of Covid-19 Lockdown on delivery services in Nigeria. Furthermore, the outcomes of this study will reveal how delivery service businesses were affected by the extraordinary Covid-19 outbreak, and the study’s pertinent recommendations will be beneficial to delivery service business owners and other firms with similar operations. This study will be important to researchers, students, teachers, and the general public, depending on their areas of interest.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The influence of Covid-19 lockout on delivery services in Nigeria is the subject of this study, which uses GIG Logistics Abeokuta in Lagos state as a case study.
LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The main limitation of this study is time constraints, as the researcher only had a limited amount of time to complete it. Financial constraints and linguistic problems, in particular, were major limiting factors in this investigation.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Coronavirus illness (Covid-19) 2019 (COVID-19) is a novel coronavirus, now known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; also known as 2019-nCoV), that was originally detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, during an outbreak of respiratory sickness cases.
Lockdown: A lockdown is a policy that requires people or communities to remain in their current location owing to specific threats to themselves or others if they are allowed to travel and interact freely.
The act of providing delivery to consumers at their desired locations is known as delivery service.
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