Abstract:
M
icrofinance banking activities have become more
complex since the outbreak of covid-19
pandemic and this has changed the mode of
banking practices, especially in the Microfinance Banks in
emerging business cities like Abuja. Therefore, this study is
to examine the effect of the covid-19 pandemic on selected
Microfinance Banks' effective service delivery in the FCT,
Abuja. Data was collected using the survey research
approach and structured questionnaires. Customers,
employees, and management from the chosen
Microfinance Banks in the FCT comprise the study's
population. The sample size for the research, 209, was
calculated by taking the population mean assuming that a Z
value corresponding to a 1% level of significance would be
2.58 and 0.56, respectively, for a real value of the population
mean. In the study, the mean values of the service delivery
activity indicators of microfinance banking were estimated
using the mean of the descriptive analysis and the SPSS. The
research found that the covid-19 epidemic has a negative
influence on microfinance bank customers' deposit rates in
the FCT, as well as a negative effect on microfinance bank
customers' loan application rates in the FCT. The study also
found that covid-19 pandemic has a negative effect on
microfinance banks' effective service delivery in the FCT.
Therefore, the study recommended that banks should
create more awareness of online banking transactions to
reduce customers staying longer hours in banks and that
banks should educate their customers on post-covid
business strategies for increased deposit rates, rate of loan
application and effective service delivery
