The Impact of Coronavirus Lockdown on Small Scale Businesses in Arua Municipality, Uganda

This study focused on the effect of coronavirus lockdown on small scale businesses in Arua Municipality, Uganda. The research design adopted in this study was qualitative interview study and underpinned on the interpretivism philosophy. Data were sourced through 10 to 15 minutes face to face in-depth interviews consisting of 10 SMEs registered with the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB). The Qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Thematic analysis is an accessible and flexible approach to qualitative data analysis, which is based on coding (Braun& Clarke, 2006). Results have shown that coronavirus lockdown has a mammoth effect on small businesses. Our findings should be interpreted in the context of the potential limitations of our study: We interviewed small business practitioners in Arua Municipality, a single metropolitan area, our interviews did not include small business customers having to reflect on their own experiences, and in all qualitative studies, findings may be influenced by the perspectives of the investigators. The results from this study should be viewed as a contribution to the knowledge the effect of coronavirus lockdown on small business. The government of Uganda can use the finding of this study develop appropriate strategies to support small business in a bid to rescue SMEs, given their significant contribution to the Ugandan economy.