The economy of Nigeria experienced recession as a result of lack of economic activities due to the coronavirus outbreak resulting in complete lockdown. Economic hardship, extreme poverty and hunger became the outcome of the lockdown; it is against the above mentioned backdrops that this study aimed at describing the economic effects of the coronavirus lockdown on the economy of Nigeria and Nigerians. A cross-sectional one-time survey was carried out on purposively selected heads of households form the six geopolitical zones of the country, with the use of structured questionnaire, with close ended questions and in-depth interviews to probe deeply into the subject of the investigation on purposively selected owner of businesses, heads of households, public and civil servants and workers in corporate organisations..Data gathered with questionnaire was anlysed using descriptive statistics in the form of frequencies and percentages while reports of the in-depth interviews were written based on the themes that were developed. The findings of the study revealed that the outbreak of coronavirus saw Nigeria economy plummeting due to the fall in price of crude oil in the International Market which led to loss of revenue for the government, thereby affecting government’s capacity to provide basic infrastructural facilities and social security services for its citizens. Many Nigerians in formal and informal sectors lost their jobs and there was increased level of poverty in the country. It was recommended that the government should encourage the manufacturing industry through the provision of infrastructural facilities in order to achieve industrialization, encourage digitalization, extend the social security register of the country to include many poor and vulnerable Nigerians and fight corruption.