The informal sector in Sub-Saharan Africa

This report attempts to provide an analysis of available secondary data on the informal sector in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is based on a study covering 13 anglophone Sub-Saharan countries.

The main findings from this study reveal that:

• there is a decline or stagnation in formal employment opportunities
• there is an increase in informal sector activities, sometimes outnumbering formal sector activities
• and there is an increasingly important contribution by the informal economy to a country’s GDP.
• women are highly active in the informal economy, often forming the majority and are over-represented in low- income activities and under-represented in higher income activities.

The paper also offers a description of a number of innovative and successful policies and programmes for workers and enterprises in the informal economy.