FIRST WAVE OF COVID-19 AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN BENIN METROPOLIS, EDO STATE, NIGERIA
The study made attempt to empirically investigate the challenges of entrepreneurship during the first wave of Covid-19 with reference to Benin metropolis, Edo state, Nigeria. The study used a cross-sectional survey design. Questionnaire was used to generate data from the entrepreneurs, covering a total of 400 respondents across the four LGAs that made up Benin metropolis. The study used 100 respondents from each local government area comprising: Egor, Oredo, Ovia North East and Ikpona Okha. Descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage) were used to analyze the sociodemographic variables and the objective of the study. Results show that some of the major challenges entrepreneurs faced during the lockdown due to Covid-19 were in areas of limited operation hours, low demand, and low revenue which negatively affect entrepreneurship in Benin municipal. Conclusively, the study shows that first wave of Covid-19 adversely affected entrepreneurship in Benin metropolis; due to the lockdown which restricted movement of people, goods and services. The study recommends that the state government should improve infrastructure, reduce taxes, levies and provide friendly environment in-order for the entrepreneurs to recover from the losses arising from the lockdown during the first wave of the pandemic. Keywords: Challenges, Covid-19, Entrepreneurship, Pandemic, Wave.