COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA: BUSINESS TRAGEDY AND OPPORTUNITIES AT A GLANCE

The tragedy that awaited the world at the dawn of 2020 with the surfacing of the new COVID-19 pandemic was recognized as deadliest in recent history considering from the standpoint of its socio-economic and political disruptions worldwide. No country was left untouched by the pandemic as even in Nigeria, businesses activities were reduced by at least 50%, putting an estimated 26.42 million employees at risk of losing their jobs. Thus, this study focused at Covid-19 pandemic and entrepreneurship development in Nigeria vis-à-vis business tragedy and opportunities at a glance. An exploratory design approach was adopted and data collected mainly from secondary sources especially qualitative from a theoretical perspective of existing literatures. The findings revealed that there were two categories of goods in the market: essential and non-essential goods. It was also discovered that while businesses and economies were hit hard negatively worldwide, especially aviation, service and the tourism industries, there were some sectors that had phenomenal results such as online conferencing applications, e-Commerce, online food retailing, pickup and delivery services, robotics, pharmaceutical, and the gaming industries, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic as they saw upsurge in sales and revenues. Several emerging entrepreneurial opportunities were also recognized and recommended for entrepreneurs to take advantage of and make profit, providing what is really essential in these hard times.