COVID-19 lockdown palliative and households' wellbeing: a microeconomic analysis

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 palliative on household well-being. Data was sourced from a cross-section of household heads using a structured questionnaire and a simple random sampling method. This study used forward-backwards-stepwise binary regression. Religious palliative, income, marital status, household size, regular earnings, self-employment, energy consumed, and domestic cooking energy have significant impacts on household well-being. The palliative from the government was not significant, while the religious palliative significantly affected household wellbeing. The primary channels through which the pandemic affected household well-being are job loss and irregular earnings. The survey discovered a significant decline in households' earnings and consumption during the COVID-19 lockdown, as substantial households resorted to credit purchases and taking loans from informal financial institutions to survive the lockdown. Earnings in the informal and organized private sectors are either halted or reduced. This study recommends that the government at all levels create synergies with the religious bodies in the subsequent empowerment or welfare-enhancement schemes. This will improve the success rate of government policies, given the confidence, the average Nigerian tends to repose in religious bodies.