REASSESSING THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 LOCKDOWN ON TRADERS’ ADOPTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS IN THE SOUTH EAST GEOPOLITICAL ZONE OF NIGERIA

Abstract

Social media have become relevant in almost every aspect of human activity including trade. No doubt, the COVID-19 pandemic has made the world realize other options to the way things are done and trading in South-eastern part of Nigeria is not left out. This paper examined the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on adoption and usage of social media channels by traders in the South East geopolitical zone of Nigeria as a catalyst in enhancing business growth. The technological adoption theory was applied to the study. Descriptive survey research design was deployed through a well structured questionnaire which was used as instrument for data collection. A sample size of 250 traders was purposively drawn from the population of the study which comprised traders in the major markets in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states in the region. The major findings revealed that the traders’ adoption of social media in post COVID-19 period was at a minimal rate but its usage during this same period was at a higher scale. Based on the findings, it is recommended that traders should embrace various social media platforms to enhance their business growth.