How the COVID-19 pandemic will affect female entrepreneurs from different informal sectors

Starting a business can offer a lifeline for people living below the poverty line as they try to recover financially and mentally. However, the Covid-19 crisis is going to have a devastating impact on economies. The outbreak has brought countries’ economies to a halt and driven many victims to shut their business and seek loans to survive. If starting a business in the informal sector [1] was difficult before the coronavirus crisis, it will be far more difficult after the crisis. This is because many employees will be made redundant (if they are not already redundant) and some people (especially women) will look to start a new business to be able to survive. Many of them will look for an informal sector to trade their products/services. As the Covid -19 is pandemic affects all countries, developing countries have a particular vulnerability because so many people work in the informal sector.