A lot hasn’t been the same with the common man in Lagos since COVID-19, otherwise known as Coronavirus, spread to the country through an Italian, who returned from his home country to Lagos state.

In an effort to contain the spread of the virus, the State Government reviewed many activities in the state which directly or indirectly affected low-income earners.

These included areas of transportation, accessing health care, bank services and Petty businesses.

Transportation Initially, commercial vehicles carried passengers to capacity. Now, the rule is that every commercial vehicle should take 75% of its capacity.

This connotes that they carry an average number of 3 per seat, which resulted in a hike in fares.

Many of the low-income earners who couldn’t afford the new fares have resorted to long trekking distances to cut cost while others have had to quit their jobs.

Take, for example, fare from Ikorodu to Oshodi was N200 before the lockdown, now it is N500. The result of this is that those who remain in employment and business now spend roughly 50% of their income on transportation. 

Read more at: https://ekohotblog.com/2020/07/19/impact-of-covid-19-on-the-grassroots-in-lagos-by-joan-oyemolan/