The city has a chequered history of managing informal traders. In October 2025, Johannesburg authorities removed informal traders from De Villiers Street in the heart of the city’s central business ...

An informal trader at Kantamanto market. “Africa is people!” Three words, the central, frustrated and hopeful thesis of Chinua Achebe’s final compilation of essays. As I read his essays, I kept ...

Vice President Kashim Shettima has reaffirmed the pivotal role of Nigeria’s informal sector, describing it as the “heartbeat of the economy.” He made the statement in Abuja during the presentation of ...

India's new national accounts will leverage new data sources and surveys to enhance the measurement of the country's informal ...

Paying into a pension is a concept we’re all pretty familiar with. Alongside tax it’s usually paid before you even see your wages. But if you make your money by cleaning your neighbours’ houses in ...

How do minimum wages affect earnings inequality in countries with large informal sectors? I provide reduced-form evidence that the 2000s minimum wage hike in Brazil raised overall inequality by ...

Kristina Pikovskaia does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations ...

The Fundo Activo de Capital de Risco Angolano, an Angolan venture capital fund that fosters the development of SMEs, is encouraging governments to invest in small businesses to make the most of the ...

Namibia's informal economy now contributes 26.5% to the country's gross domestic product (GDP), representing approximately US$13 billion at GDP purchasing power parity (PPP) levels for 2025. The data, ...

Ubiquitous yet invisible, vitally important yet frequently ignored, China’s informal recyclers play a key, if unofficial role in the country‘s current recycling system, even as their profession ...

Should you have feedback on this article, please complete the fields below. Please indicate if your feedback is in the form of a letter to the editor that you wish to have published. If so, please be ...