Effect of Covid-19 Pandemic on Microfinance Banks' Effective Service Delivery in Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja

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