THE EFFECT OF COVID 19 ON BUSINESSES

THE EFFECT OF COVID 19 ON BUSINESSES

The coronavirus disease has claimed the lives of over six million individuals^[1], resulting in a devastating social, economic, and humanitarian crisis with immeasurable ramifications^[2]. These include worsening health conditions for marginalized and disproportionately affected communities, rises in extreme poverty and hunger, which result in famine, sickness, and death^[3]. Hence a particular focus being placed on it^[4].

The COVID-19 epidemic has indeed extended to other significant industries, such as global trade, and is no longer just a medical issue^[5]. This reality was recognised by none other than the International Trade Organization, which declared that because output and consumption are being reduced globally, the epidemic represents an unprecedented disruption to the global economy and world trade^[6].

As it relates to this Session, the Covid 19 pandemic has brought to the fore; the need to understand the experience of different individuals who have lived through the pandemic. In a short interview with a boss (law firm Partner) the following can be revealed:

Feedback of the Boss (Legal Partner)

• The Law firm initially found it difficult to coordinate the employees to work remotely but eventually bootstrapped with trainings and pairing employees who find gadgets difficult with those that are tech savvy. There was also an informal chitchat before every meeting to ease up the stress.
• The amount of Legal Litigation (Court related matters) engagements dropped drastically as the Major High Court and Magistrates Court at Igbosere, Lagos Island was burnt during the end-sarz protest.
• There was a drop in revenue for the law firm meanwhile rental and depreciation expenses had to be paid.
• Lesser expenses were incurred on Transportation and travel.
• We had to embark on a digitization spree for all our paperwork to make them easily accessible to the employees.

Feedback from the Employee (Associate):

• Had to learn and adapt to remote online working.
• Felt lonely and isolated due to the reduction in human contact. This sometimes led to demotivation.
• Felt detached from the Law firm as they were not reporting in person to their supervisors neither were they making use of their office tools and desk.
• Felt free to explore other side hustles like painting and graphics design.
• Saved expenses on transportation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light the flaws in global health systems and their inability to quickly meet the demands of their various populations. In fact, the COVID-19 pandemic has also brought attention to the necessity of swiftly developing new vaccines aimed to fight emerging viruses that cause infectious diseases or epidemics^[7].

[1] World Health Organization. WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard. https://covid19.who.int/. Published 2021. Accessed 16 September 2022.

[2] Lakner C, Yonzan N, Mahler DG, Castaneda Aguilar RA, Wu H. Updated Estimates of the Impact of COVID-19 on Global Poverty: Looking Back at 2020 and the Outlook for 2021. World Bank Group; 2021.

[3] Hunger Hotspots. FAO-WFP Early Warnings on Acute Food Insecurity; March to July 2021 Outlook. http://www.fao.org/3/cb3938en/cb3938en. pdf. Published 2021. Accessed 17 September 2022.

[4] Migration Factsheet No. 6 – The Impact Of COVID-19 On Migrants Synthesis Analysis Drawing on IOM’S World Migration Report Series. https://www.iom.int/sites/default/files/our_work/ICP/MPR/migration_ factsheet_6_covid-19_and_migrants.pdf. Published 2021. Accessed 18 September 2022.

[5] WTO Waiver from Certain Provisions of the TRIPS Agreement for the Prevention, Containment, and Treatment of COVID-19, (2020) World Trade Organization. IP/C/W/669.

[6] Okereke M. “Towards Vaccine Equity: Should Big Pharma Waive Intellectual Property Rights for COVID-19 Vaccines?” (2021) Public Health Pract (Oxf). doi: 10.1016/j.puhip.2021.100165.

[7] Ana Santos Rutschman, The COVID-19 Vaccine Race. 64 WASH. U. J. L. & POL’Y 167 (2021) Vol 64 Issue 12.