Analysis of the impact of naira redesign policy on micro scale enterprises in three selected Northwest States, Nigeria: A Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test approach
Keywords:
Consumption expenditure, Employment, Naira redesign policy, Micro enterprisesAbstract
This study examined the impact of Naira redesign policy on micro scale enterprises in three selected north-west states, Nigeria, as well as the major problems linked with implementation of the policy. Primary data were collected through structured questionnaires and interviews. A multi-stage sampling approach was used to select 990 owners of micro scale enterprises from
18 local government areas across Kaduna, Kano, and Katsina states. Descriptive statistics, along with Shapiro-Wilk and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests for normality, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and Cohen's guideline were employed to analyze the data. The socio-economic characteristics revealed that the majority of respondents were male (81%), married (69.80%) and had some level of education. However, a significant portion (86.26%) did not belong to any relevant business association, and 62.93% had no access to credit, with the few who did relying mostly on informal sources. Most were engaged in businesses related to the buying and selling of foodstuff, snacks and drinks. The results indicated that micro-enterprise owners experienced declines in sales, employment, income and consumption expenditure by -28.27%, -35.13%, -33.85%, and -30.23%, respectively, due to the policy. Major problems included the shortage of new Naira notes, poor financial internet services and rise in cost of doing business. The null hypothesis (H0) was rejected, concluding that the introduction and implementation of the Naira redesign policy significantly impacted the activities and wellbeing of microenterprises in the study area. The study recommends comprehensive orientation of citizens about potential policies prior to implementation, the provision of efficient and reliable financial internet services, imposing severe penalties on those who misuse policies for personal gain and extending the period for swapping old and new Naira notes.
