COMPARATIVE STUDY OF NIGERIA ECONOMY BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER THE CORONA VIRUS DISEASE 2019 (COVID-19) LOCKDOWN

Abstract

This study investigates the state of Nigeria’s economy before, during, and after the COVID-19 lockdown by examining monthly data on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), inflation rate, unemployment rate, and interest rate from January 2019 to December 2021. The data were obtained from reputable sources including the National Bureau of Statistics, Central Bank of Nigeria, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank. To analyze the data, repeated measures ANOVA and Friedman’s test were employed, depending on the distribution of each variable. Since the normality assumption was not met for GDP, interest rate, and unemployment rate, Friedman’s test was used. Results showed statistically significant changes across the three years. Post-hoc analysis with the Nemenyi test identified specific year-on-year differences: GDP (2020–2021), interest rate (2019–2020, 2019–2021), and unemployment rate (2019–2020, 2020–2021). The inflation rate, which met the normality condition, was analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA, also revealing significant variation across the years. The findings demonstrate that all four economic indicators experienced significant fluctuations over the study period, highlighting the considerable economic impact of the COVID-19 lockdown in Nigeria.