Impact of Covid-19 on Small and Medium Enterprises In Uganda. A Case Study Of Smes In Kawempe

Abstract

The aim of the study was to estimate the effect of COVID-19 on small and medium enterprises in Kawempe. The study period was from January 2020 to February 2020. The study utilized a cross-sectional research design since there was no need to follow up respondents. The study revealed that a total of 84.1% of the respondents indicated that the lockdown affected their businesses. The study also revealed that 89.4% of the respondents agreed that the income of the business declined during the COVID-19 lockdown and the rest disagreed. The study findings indicated that 76.9% agreed that profitability of the business declined during the lockdown. The study recommended that the government should consider giving all affected businesses grants to help them recover from the effects of the lock down. The study also recommended that the financial services providers should design special type of loans to facilitate the businesses that have chances of shutting down due to the effect of the pandemic. Finally, the study recommended that the businesses should adopt business models that aim at cost reduction by all means for example restructuring the non-essential employees until when the business’ revenue grows since the pandemic increased the costs of doing business in Kampala.