The effect of Covid-19 on performance of small and medium enterprises in Uganda

Abstract

The global health crisis caused by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 began in China catching the world oblivious and unprepared and causing significant disorder to business activities, with serious adverse effects on small businesses and medium scale businesses. Majority of the non-essential businesses in SMEs stayed home due to fear of catching the virus or lack of public transportation and some small-scale businesses. In the longer-term, this pandemic led to an economic slowdown and recession. The emergence of this novel virus was not evidentially traceable, but was adjudged to have emanated from a clustering pneumonia of unknown etiology in Wuhan city, a district in China. The medical experts claimed that COVID-19 affects the entire respiratory system of the body by collapsing the lungs first which leads to shortness of breath and eventual collapse of all functional organs of the entire body A well-structured questionnaire was distributed randomly electronically by to various respondents within the selected Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs) in central division of Kampala city. The study results show that respondents who were aged 30 years and above were affected most (100%) as compared to the respondents who were aged <30 years. The effect decreased by age. That is 90 percent and 60 percent for 20-29 and <20 years respectively. Also, businesses owned by female respondents were affected by Covid-19 most (94.1%) as compared to the businesses owned by male respondents (88.2%). The prevalence of Covid-19 has definitely affected the business dynamics throughout the world. And the world economy has rebound with successive businesses springing up. I would wish to recommend that the businesses should also adopt the E-Business model such as online businesses and payments so as to contain the situation in place and boost the business’s performance.