Coronavirus pandemic triggered an unprecedented health crisis in the world that disrupted the market across the world. It’s the largest public health crisis in living memory which has also generated a major economic crisis, with a halt in production in the affected countries across the world. This forced various governments globally including African governments to impose stringent measures and restrictions to contain the spread of the virus. 

• The measures imposed by the government saw many people from across the world rendered jobless as the number of employees were greatly reduced in various firms as they were trying to adhere to the social distance rule in any place of gathering.
• There was also a great slowdown of economic growth of various economies as a result of the pandemic,
• The containment measures, however, created an opportunity for people to start businesses to create a more resilient and sustainable economy.

SMEs have got a significant opportunity in improving production capacity and build economic and social resilience since they account for a greater percentage of businesses in African countries and are the major drivers of invention and innovations 

Small and Medium Enterprises 

The pandemic affected the small and medium enterprises where the SMEs experienced a reduction in the supply of labor, as most workers needed to look after their dependents while schools were closed and movement of people was also restricted. Other measures such as lockdowns and quarantines lead to further and more drops in capacity utilization, which led to shortages of goods in some parts of the country.

On the other hand, drastic and sudden loss of demand and revenue for SMEs severely affected their ability to function properly as before. The effects compounded because workers were laid off and firms were not able to pay their salaries.

The pandemic has created new customer needs, thereby generating opportunities for innovation. This where SMEs showed their value, more so in the technology sector as many people came up with new technologies in a way of fighting the pandemic. The technologies range from the invention of handwashing machines, locally assembled beds to robots that help in controlling it and helping the already infected persons to recover from the deadly disease. There is, therefore, a need for the government to help the small and micro enterprises during a post-covid-19 era to sustain them as this will help in solving the unemployment in the country and at the same time earns the country foreign income.s