Update 16 of SEDPI’s Rapid Community Assessment (RCA)
January – March 2022

Two years from the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020, only 26% of nanoenterprise resume normal operations. While most have resumed operations (96%), 70% of them said that their sales weakened due to lower market demand.

This year’s first quarter nanoenterprise status is slightly worse compared to the previous year which had 34% of nanoenterprises resuming normal operations and 65% experiencing weak sales.

In spite of this, 45% of nanoenterprises consider themselves as already recovered from the negative effects of the pandemic. However, this is still worse than the previous year’s first quarter performance of 57%.

During this period, Russia invaded Ukraine which saw pump prices of oil increase which leads to fear of a stronger than expected inflation for the year.

The number of nanoenterprises who said they already recovered from the negative effects of the pandemic as of the third quarter of 2022 grew from 50% to 77% compared to the same quarter last year. In December 2020, only 32% of nanoenterprises consider themselves as recovered.

The government’s target for initial vaccine dose is almost achieved and started rolling out booster shots to frontline health workers and individuals with comorbidities.

There were 4 confirmed, 5 probable and 5 suspected COVID cases out of the 1,378  for this 16th edition of SEDPI’s rapid community assessment since it began in March 2020. However, no hospitalization cases were reported.

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.

• July 25, 2021 (Update 13): Nanoenterprise recovery almost doubles to 63% a year after lockdowns
• April 22, 2021 (Update 12): 1 out of 4 nanoenterprises adopted online selling in response to lockdowns
• January 20, 2021 (Update 11): Typhoon hampers bounce back of nanoenterprises in CARAGA
• July 17, 2020 (Update 10): Almost 4 in 10 nanoenterprises bounce back to pre-pandemic level
• June 12, 2020 (Update 9): Microenterprises show signs of bouncing back as lockdown eases
• May 28, 2020 (Update 8): 8 out of 10 microenterprises open for business one month after GCQ
• May 22, 2020 (Update 7): Demand for microenterprise products remain weak amid COVID pandemic
• May 15, 2020 (Update 6): Demand slumps on microenterprise products 2 weeks after GCQ
  May 8, 2020 (Update 5): Only 5% of microenterprises back to “normal” in first week of GCQ
• April 30, 2020 (Update 4): Two in three microenterprises hopeful to bounce back two months after lockdow – UPDATE 4
• April 24, 2020 (Update 3): Community assessment and recommendations for support to microenterprises and the informal sector during and after COVID-19 – UPDATE 3
• April 14, 2020 (Update 2): Community assessment and recommendations for support to microenterprises and the informal sector during and after COVID-19 – UPDATE 2
• April 6, 2020 (Update 1): Community assessment and recommendations for support to microenterprises and the informal sector during and after COVID-19 – UPDATE 1
• March 30, 2020: Immediate impact of COVID-19 lockdown to microenterprises