European Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance Research Vol.8, No. 11, pp.1-11, December 2020 Published by ECRTD-UK Print ISSN: 2053-4086(Print), Online ISSN: 2053-4094(Online) 1 THE FINANCIAL IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON POULTRY INDUSTRY IN NIGERIA Alawode, Olufemi Olufemi.alawocome@gmail.com Department of Accounting, Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Nigeria ABSTRACT: The covid-19 pandemic as declared by WHO in March 2020 is a game changer that introduced a “new normal” of every facet of life, every sector of the economy and every cluster of the population. The key indicators of business plan and continuity, government policies and security imopacting logistics have been affected and in all affecting the short-term survival rate of the poultry industry.The analysis revealed that all proxies of covid-19 indicators such as business plan and continuity, government policies and security impacting logistics have a significant positive effect on the financial health of the poultry industry (Adjusted R 2 = 0.949, F-statistics = 5.512 : p= 0.000<0.05). Thus, the research concluded that a well-managed Covid-19 indicators and proxies have a significant positive effect on the financial health of the poultry industry in Nigeria. KEYWORDS: poultry industry, COVID-19, .Gross Domestic Product, cycle management. INTRODUCTION The World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 20201, having serious and critical impact on people’s lives, families, businesses and communities at large.The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced many challenges in all sectors of the economy but focus of this paper will be on the agricultural livestock sector and specifically the poultry industry. The Poultry industry can be broadly categorized into two, namely the meat and egg industry. The two broad categories however exhibit the same trait and thus can benefit or suffer from the same fate or fortune. SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) represents the latest member of the coronavirus family affecting humans of which virus type is commonly found in humans and other mammals. In humans, coronavirus has four strains that cause mild clinical symptoms, usually referred as the common cold. This was a virus that broke out in China in December 2019 but globally WHO declared it a pandemic in March 2020. The financial and non-financial performance of the industry are the two broad oxygen pipes that ensure the survival of the industry and thus it will be logical to briefly consider the non-financial performance criteria before x-raying the financial performance measures with particular focus on the short-run survival strategies since it takes just a few seconds to survive kneeling on ones neck. SMEs are financially more fragile and cash-strapped when market aggregate demand is down and a typical response will be availability of emergency funding programs with lower interest rates, deferred or waived taxes and fees, or easier lending policies as additional measures to help the SMEs survive this harsh period of stagnancy.