The catastrophe that awaited the world at the dawn of 2020 with the emergence of the new COVID-19 pandemic was one no one could have predicted that a health crisis will affect every country in every continent, putting the world economy to a standstill with over 460 million businesses at the verge of permanent closure while causing some 1.6 billion jobs at risk of loss globally. The pandemic is by far the deadliest in recent history judging from the perspective of its socio-economic and political disruptions worldwide. No country is left untouched by the pandemic as even in Nigeria, businesses activities have been reduced by at least 50%, putting an estimated 26.42 million employees at risk of losing their jobs. This study is aimed at exploring the global catastrophe and opportunities occasioned by the impact of the pandemic. An exploratory design approach was adopted and data collected mainly from secondary sources. The findings revealed that there are two categories of goods in the market: essential and non-essential goods. It was also discovered that while businesses and economies were hit hard negatively worldwide, especially aviation, service and the tourism industries, there were some sectors that had phenomenal results such as online conferencing applications, e-Commerce, online food retailing, pickup and delivery services, robotics, pharmaceutical, and the gaming industries etc., amidst the COVID-19 pandemic as they saw upsurge in sales and revenues. Several emerging entrepreneurial opportunities were also recognized and recommended for entrepreneurs to take advantage of and make profit, providing what is really essential in these hard times.
Keywords: Corona Virus disease; COVID-19 pandemic; entrepreneurship; global catastrophe; global opportunities
