On a side note…
Normally, in nearly every democracy, it has become an agenda if not a propaganda, for leaders who are campaigning for various elective seats to put employment as their main agenda. For instance, let's take the incumbent Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta who’s main talking points in his manifesto apart from delivering laptops to all school goers, and building stadiums all over the country during his 2013 campaign (lol) he promised one thing that seemed to touch majority of the Kenyans, employment of the youth. The fact that he and his deputy were able to convince loads of Kenyans that all the jobs created in the country would go to the youth, was just enough to propel them to their current head of states position. Fast forward eight years on, and as the government was able to create nearly 4.3 million jobs which is an average of 850,000 jobs annually (shy away from the 1 million annual mark), of which was a much better performance than the previous leaders who were in power. However, as much as all these jobs were created, Kenyans still remain unconvinced with the state of affairs in the employment sector. As of 2020, nearly 35% of the youth in the country remain unemployed, accounting for nearly 5.3 million youth. And to add insult to injury, a further 1.78 million people were rendered jobless between March and April of 2020 due to the tight coronavirus restrictions which resulted in employers losing out terribly in their businesses thus forcing them to retrench their workers. Therefore, as much as all these jobs were created, why is it still difficult to say that the employment issue has not been resolved yet?
(c) Economic Survey, 2019
Informal Sector’s Cycle of Redundancy
Kenya and a majority of other developing countries in general, have the informal sector accounting to close to 80% of their employment rates, of which could be a good and bad thing as well. Good in the fact that, majority of these people are able to earn a living based on the businesses they do, from second hand selling of goods, ‘jua kali’ artisans of Kenya to other businesses such as hairdressing. Throughout the years, the informal sector has continued to stimulate employment and also build up the country's economy as a whole. However, the challenge of this sector is the fact that it continues to remain vulnerable to government policy among other several external factors. This is because as most of them are not controlled or protected by a form of legislation, they often tend to be caught on the wrong side of the law, as due to changing policies created by various urban councils, their businesses are often regarded to be illegal and as a result, their property, documentation as well as their goods, tend to be either destroyed or confiscated by the law enforcement. This in turn, sets another chain reaction and the person involved in the business often loses their source of income thus rendering them “unemployed”. Therefore, with this scenario and also the fact that the majority of them do not earn above 220$ (not qualified for any tax relief) puts them in a very vulnerable position that results in them being unemployed.
It remains extremely unfortunate that many of the people involved in this sector have toil and work for years just to end up in the same scenario, same daily fear and the same potential outcome. As much as every individual continues to ‘work hard’ ‘work smart’ just as their supreme being, village pastor or Member of Parliament tells them, the fact still remains the same. As long as the external barriers exist, the redundancy shall thrive in its full endeavor.
(c) KNBS
Time For A Rebirth?
Well, we as a nation and a continent as a whole have spent lots of time deliberating the best way forward to cater for the growing youth population that needs work “urgently” and several thought processes have come through, from fiscal policies, to entrepreneurship all the way to investing in technology.
All these remain to be very important steps to ensuring that we can be able to increase jobs for the youth in the continent. However, the future of the informal sector still remains to be the most crucial of all time. The fact that the informal sector single handedly promotes majority of the entrepreneurship in the developing countries, its very essential that governments see the importance of this sector and pull in to assist where possible. I believe that even coming up with a single policy that favors people to invest in the sector, can alone attract several businesses to open up and be able to bridge the unemployment gap, and after sorting out laws and policies of running informal sectors, it is essential to further create financial laws that not only provide a source of funds to the people, but to further create financial security as it remains to be the biggest challenge in the sector, thus rendering many of them jobless.
With the COVID19 here with us, this is the right time to rewrite the rules of informal sectors (as its always referred to), and with the initial health of coming up with health protocols to ensure the safety of all stakeholders in the business, this forms as an excellent stepping stone to ensure that all are involved with in the process. And to finally break the redundant chain of poverty, we need to create policies that will ensure that the informal sector can acquire partnership both in the domestic and regional sector so as to boost their sales. And this is where the EAC can come in perfectly. Since the EAC already properly functions in the commerce sector, the creation of policies that directly affect the informal sectors in all forms, will ensure integration and a creation of a “common market” that can enable ease of transfer of goods and creation of an extremely flexible market instead of entirely depending on a single form of market within the borders.
Therefore I believe the potential of the sector shifting to among the top 3 industries in the continent, is entirely possible if given the adequate and DECENT attention it deserves.
References
Ng’weno, A., & Porteous, D. (2018, October 15). Let's Be Real: The Informal Sector and the Gig Economy are the Future, and the Present, of Work in Africa. Retrieved November 17, 2020, from https://www.cgdev.org/publication/lets-be-real-informal-sector-and-gig-economy-are-future-and-present-work-africa
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