Socio-economic impacts of covid-19 on household welfare of Kyebando residents.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 on household welfare of people of Kyebando, Kawempe division Kampala Uganda. The specific objectives were; 1) to examine the social impacts of COVID-19 on household welfare of Kyebando residents, 2) to establish the economic impact of COVID-19 lockdown on households in Kyebando. The study used questionnaires to collect data from 100 households. The findings revealed that the significant social impacts of COVID-19 among the Kyebando residents were effects on losing jobs (P=0.000), effects on self-exclusion from social networks (P=0.000), loss of income (P=0.003), difficulty in accessing health services (P=0.040) and disruption in learning of children (P=0.013). The most significant economic impacts of COVID-19 on households in Kyebando were; reduced daily sales (P=0.000), temporary closure of businesses (P=0.000), Reduction in the number of employees (P=0.000), reduced profits and returns on investment (P=0.000) and shift of business to online. Finally the coping strategies used were; Cutting back on food eaten per day (P=0.000), reduced consumption of goods and service (P=0.000) and selling assets to get money to buy basic needs (P=0.010). Using the linear regression results that found an overall significant P-value of 0.0000 it can be concluded that COVID-19 has significantly impacted the welfare of people in Kyebando. The study recommended that the government should establish a recapitalization fund for small scale businesses, further studies should be conducted to analyze the impact of reduced household consumption and cutting back food consumed in the household on the nutritional status of children less than five years and employment opportunities should be created by government and other humanitarian organisations to cushion people who lost their jobs during COVID-19.