COVID19: Impact of Shutdowns on Daily Wagers

Though the sermon ridicules the potency of Coronavirus, Chibuzor’s mind raced out of the church to clients who will not open their offices the next day. The shouts of Amen to the proclamation of God’s safety in a time of the Coronavirus pestilence brought him back from the worries of a Monday without a day job. 

He remembers his usual saying, ‘this our work na like ashawo work’ which means this job is like a commercial sex worker’s whose livelihood depended on the amount of patronage. And looked up to the heavens for solace.

Chibuzor is a handyman who commutes every day for twenty-five kilometres to the business districts of Abuja hoping his clients in the big offices would have repair jobs for him. His happiest moments are days these offices have major fixes like installations or an entire office wiring job.   

With 40 confirmed cases, the realities of Covid-19 hit the country and economic activities are slowly winding down in big cities like Abuja. Many woke up yesterday to emails from their office advising them to stay home until further notice.  

Shutting Down Business 

Experts opinions are that several cases of the coronavirus infection are yet to be discovered and the spread can only be stopped if key economic activities are on lockdown. The Government of Lagos State responded quickly by shutting down schools and worship centres to reduce the spread of the virus. To curb its spread in the state, there is currently a ban of the gathering of more than 50 persons at a time to reduce the number of close contacts.  

Kaduna State has also shut down its schools and discourage any gathering of people in excess of 50 persons. The likes of Anambra, Ekiti, Niger, Edo, Ogun, Benue Lagos and Enugu amongst other states have shut down schools within their states. 

The Federal government also responded by shutting down federal tertiary institutions and unity schools as well as closing the NYSC camp. Gradually, the Nigerian economy is shutting down in response to reduce the spread of Covid19 in the country. 

The Fate of Daily Wagers and Unorganized Labour 

However, like Chibuzor, daily wagers in Nigeria are prone to dire problem of hunger due to the gradual shut down of offices and likely massive shut down of public places in a couple of days. With the closure of economic activities in Lagos State and a possible follow up action across the country, the livelihood and welfare of the odd jobbers hang in the balance. 

The odd jobbers are among over 100 million Nigerians who live below N700 per day and survive on their daily sales. The shutdown of the economy is proposed for 30 days. The daily wagers may find it impossible to survive within this period as their savings will obviously be exhausted before long. That is if there is a saving to fall back on. 

Looking at their major expenses and how they work towards meeting them. They make on the average between N500 to N5,000. And from this amount they commit some to savings with their daily contribution which serves when it comes to offsetting school fees, house rent and other major expenses. 

With the shutdown of the economy, these people will obviously be denied their daily source of livelihood. This will take away any form of financial coordination they have to attend to their survival needs. The daily wagers may suffer more from hunger than the coronavirus if/when there is a complete shutdown of the economy. 

To ensure that the welfare of citizens is taken care of, the US Government passed a paid leave for all staying at home due to the shutdown of the economy. However, there is no outlined measure by the Lagos State government or the Federal government in the face of this shutdown.  

Even if the Federal or state governments want to provide some welfare interventions, the bigger challenge of identity, financial exclusion and lack of informal sector enumeration are bigger challenges to combat first.  

The pandemic once again calls for reflection on governance in Nigeria and heightens the importance of fiscal and monetary infrastructure that can withstand socio-economic shifts and shock. A good place to start is aggressive identity management and massive effort to bank the unbanked in Nigeria.