The number of nanoenterprises who said they already recovered from the negative effects of the pandemic almost doubled from 36% to 63% compared to the same quarter last year.

All nanoenterprises are optimistic to recover from the pandemic. The remaining 37% estimate that they will be able to recover in the next four months.

During this period, the government already rolled out COVID-19 vaccination for frontline health workers and is in the process of procuring more vaccines to serve the general public. There were 12 confirmed and 59 suspected COVID cases out of the 8,096 respondents.

Subdued recovery

Amid the optimism is subdued recovery. More than half (53%) reported that their livelihood slightly weakend. They said (64%) this is due to weak demand in the market.

Access to supply is good as 82% of the are able to procure materials for their livelihood. This is an improvement from 73% of the first quarter of 2021.

E-commerce participation

The previous quarter rapid community assessment showed that 26% of nanoenterprises adopted e-commerce in an effort to sustain their livelihoods. This improved to 41% for the second quarter of 2021.

Three out of 10 regularly purchase goods online that they resell in their community and 45% have experience purchasing goods online for their household needs.

Digital finance

Mobile phone ownership increased from 65% a year ago to 77% this year. The number of basic phone ownership dropped from 39% to 19%, while ownership of Android phone increased from 24% to 68%.

Computer ownership doubled from 4% to 8% in the same period. Internet access improved from 32% to 61% and social media account ownership increased from 47% to 59%. Bank account ownership also increased from 8% to 44%.

Overall financial inclusion and digitalization improved to cope with restrictions that arose from the lockdowns.

Vaccination willingness

A third of the respondents (35%) are already vaccinated. Three out of four of the remaining unvaccinated, are unwilling to get shot. The reasons given for vaccine hesitancy are the following: fear that the vaccine may cause death (46%), severe side effects (32%), vaccine is ineffective and unsafe (13%); and infertility (10%).

Majority of the respondents (58%) are not sure whether the vaccines the government is currently procuring is effective and safe. There were 37% who said that they believe these are effective and safe while 5% said outright that they do not believe it is effective and safe.

Only 23% of the respondents were able to answer that COVID-19 vaccine will not result to 100% immunity from the virus. Almost half (44%) correctly pointed out that vaccination will provide protection from severe infection and death.

In spite of the lack of trust in the vaccines the national government is procuring, most of the respondents (82%) said that they believe the local government units are effective in managing the pandemic.

Profile of respondents

Most of the respondents are female (86%), married (72%), and operate their own business or earn wages (95%). Their average age is 42 and are from the provinces of Agusan del Sur, Davao de Oro and Surigao del Sur.

Nanoenterprises are smaller than microenterprises. These are unregistered livelihoods of self-employed individuals that have capitalization of less than PhP50,000. SEDPI estimates that the vast majority of the entrepreneurial poor in the Philippines are nanoenterprises, at around 8 million.