The Synergistic Role of Leadership and Digital Marketing in Nigerian Traditional Open Market Systems Amidst the Global Health Pandemic (Covid-19)

This research engineers the call for a digital marketing transformation of the retail and wholesale activities of the Nigerian Open markets’ operations. In view of the COVID-19 Crisis which has had devastating effects on many businesses and health status of the populace, especially on wholesale and retail businesses and startups. Switching to digital marketing or a combined use of off-line and digital marketing strategies in the Open markets of Nigeria will solve the current question that has been begging for answer around the world which is, how to minimize/manage the spread of the Corona virus which is experiencing a spike in infections due to community spread, while avoiding economic collapse? The research used a descriptive survey design with an infinite population of respondents and Cochran formula at 95% confidence level was used to arrive at 385 respondents. However, only 350 responses were successfully retrieved. Using correlation analysis on SPSS version 25, the study revealed that there is a significant statistical relationship between digital marketing and business profitability and wealth creation of TOM operations during the lockdown. Leadership role has a significant but moderate correlation with digital marketing transformations in the open markets.