CORONAVIRUS 2019 AND FINANCIAL HEALTH INDICATORS OF NIGERIAN FOODS AND BEVERAGES MANUFACTURING COMPANIES

Abstract Coronavirus (COVID-19) broke out in 2019. It infected the whole world including Nigeria. This study, evaluated the effect of Coronavirus Pandemic on the stability of listed Nigerian Foods and Beverages Manufacturing Companies. Expost-Facto design was employed. Using Purposive Sampling Technique 17 Companies that made financial reports to 31st December 2022 were selected from 20. Data was analyzed with T-test. The results showed an insignificant difference in ROCE mean values between the Pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods (p > 0.05), as well as between the Post-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods (p > 0.05). However, significant differences were observed in the mean current and acid test ratios between both the Pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods (p < 0.05) and the Post-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods (p < 0.05). Additionally, long-term solvency analysis revealed significant mean differences for both the Pre-COVID-19 vs. COVID-19 periods and the Post-COVID-19 vs. COVID-19 periods (p < 0.05. From the results of the tested hypotheses and the discussion of findings, we concluded that Coronavirus significantly affected the performance of the Nigerian foods and beverages manufacturing companies. Hence, we recommended that management of food and beverages companies must carry out continuous monitoring of their companies’ financial metrics during pandemic periods. KEYWORDS: Coronavirus, Financial performance, ROCE, Liquidity, Solvency, Manufacturing companies