A banana market in Kitwa, Uganda. Most of Uganda’s economic activity is informal and untaxed.
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Uganda Revenue Authority has turned its focus on small traders and VAT law enforcement after the World Bank funding freeze.
Riders who deliver for online food platforms are self-employed, and can nominate a substitute to deliver on their behalf.
John Walton/PA/Alamy
Our study of food delivery workers in one English city highlights the daily challenges facing undocumented migrants in this sector.
Ghana’s e-levy has hit traders in the country’s informal sector the hardest.
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Domestic resource mobilisation cannot be achieved by over-taxing the livelihoods of the most vulnerable workers in the informal sector.
A food vendor in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. The rise in food prices has begun to ease in the country.
Photo by Zinyange Auntony/AFP via Getty Images
A slowdown in price rises, combined with the shift to less aggressive rate hikes, is good news for the minister’s budget initiatives on growth.
A clando taxi stand in downtown Rufisque, Dakar metropolitan area.
G. Lesteven, 2021
Urban expansion in Sub-Saharan Africa and the need for daily mobility
Street vendors ply their trade in Johannesburg.
EPA-EFE/Kim Lubrook
The city’s street trading management approach is mainly restrictive. Relocations, harassment and confiscation of of traders’ stock are common.
A lot of African countries have implemented taxes on electronic transactions.
Wikimedia Commons
The tax on electronic transactions has not generated as much revenue as the government of Ghana expected.
People trained in the informal sector are equally skilled or better than those who attended formal training.
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Skills training in Zimbabwe excludes students from poor backgrounds. The informal sector should be used as a training ground for them.
Trade unions in Mozambique have been weakened due to their proximity to the ruling party, Frelimo.
Photo by Gianluigi Guercia/AFP via Getty Images
Mozambique’s trade unions have not been a strong force in society – which has left a space for others to fill.
Traders examine bales of tobacco, which is among Zimbabwe’s key exports, at a March 2022 auction in Harare.
EFE-EPA/Aaron Ufumeli
As Zimbabwe heads for 2023 presidential elections, there are key things voters should watch out for in the social protection promises made by candidates.
Vincent Nhidza, right, and colleague Mathew Simango, arrange coffins at a street workshop in Harare, Zimbabwe.
EPA-EFE/Aaron Ufumeli
Informal sector organisations in Zimbabwe have the potential to influence politics at a personal and societal level.
Christian Thompson/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
A levy on electronic transactions in Ghana makes sense if the government gets the architecture for it right
Rosa Eugenia uses a capulana masks produced at a small sewing workshop in Maputo, Mozambique.
EFE-EPA/Ricardo Franco
Study shows that agriculture, one of the most important sectors, did not decline in 2020 compared to its historical trend. Service sectors were hit hard in each of the five countries.
A group of African woman walking on their way home in Zimbabwe. The informal sector has potential to harness small sustainability benefits.
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Informal economic activities in Norton, Zimbabwe play a part in environmental sustainability and contribute to the town’s financial sustainability.
Informal workers in West Africa have been hardest hit by covid-19 lockdowns.
Chris Kirchhoff/Wikimedia Commons
Informal employment is significant in sub-Saharan Africa. The plight of informal workers needs to be highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Young people wait to register at a South African university in 2012. They are bearing the brunt of high levels of unemployment.
Photo by Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images
Can the structural barriers to low-skilled employment growth be overcome?
Millions of young Nigerians live on the streets of Lagos and survive through street trading.
Pius Utomi EkpeI/AFP via Getty Images
Youth unemployment in Nigeria is a skills mismatch problem – corporations can’t find suitable workers in the midst of a large pool of unemployed workers.
Mujahid Safodien/AFP via Getty Images
Most of the million gardners employed in South Africa earn less than the minimum wage.
Makeshift shops have mushroomed as people try to make ends meet amid South Africa’s excessive unemployment.
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Many unemployed young people are engaged in a variety of economic activities. These may not necessarily be recognised as a form of self employment or informal employment.
Informal businesses face numerous challenges which hinder their growth.
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It’s time African governments supported the development of online platforms designed to support local people in the informal sector.