Rethinking Covid-19 Lockdown-policy Interim Influence on African Economies

Abstract

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak brought the world to a standstill having triggered a global lockdown of movements and economic activities. Governments were compelled to enforce social distancing policies comprising practices meant to minimize physical contacts to a reasonable extent. These helped in containing the spread of the pandemic in Africa, as elsewhere. The lockdowns jeopardized the flow of trade across the globe, which particularly spelt panic in Africa, where short and long-term impact on the economies could be more devastating. Against this backdrop, the paper attempts to determine the extent of damage COVID-19 lockdown saga has inflicted on the hitherto impoverished African economies and the way forward. The analytical framework for the paper is anchored on the dependency theory while the secondary source of data collection and analysis was employed. It found that after the COVID-19 lockdowns, most African economies have declined further than they were before the outbreak of the disease. As a remedy, African states should strive to adopt stringent and viable strategies to reconstruct their economies by cutting down on costs and frivolous spending. Furthermore, the adoption of prudent revenue drive is advocated coupled with encouraging local and foreign direct investments, in order to stay afloat.