Features and growth potential of small-scale production enterprises in the urban informal sector in the Gambia
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2000-03Author(s)/Corporate Author (s)
Camara, Ebrima Ousman;United Nations. Economic Commission for Africa. African Institute for Economic Development and Planning(IDEP);
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The informal sector is real phenomenon in developing countries, where the theory now seems to establish a negative relationship between informality and economic growth. It is the conclusion of the literature on the subject that higher level of economic in formalization is an indication of lower pace of economic growth and development. With the formal economy shrinking in its capacity to create jobs, many end up taking jobs and earn a livelihood in the informal sector, swelling it in the process. However, informality is a passing phase of the overall development process whose level, like subsistence agriculture, will decline as economic development properly gets underway.
This study works within a guiding assumption that maintains that assisting informal sector enterprises to grow is a desirable strategy, and that policies have to evolve to facilitate that growth. But the question is what do we know about the sector? How much can policies do without knowledge of the various attributes of the sector? What are the typical forms of constraints faced by the enterprises? The search for answers to these questions is an important step to suggesting policy measures. This study seeks to generate some knowledge on the basis of a sample evidence involving some sixty enterprises that presumably constitute viable components of the sector with potential for growth through some judicious intervention of technical, funding and other forms of assistance.
The study made some recommendations, constructed against the assumption stated above. Importantly, these seek a gradually transformation of informal sector enterprises to formal entities, with the hope that this will involve establishing stronger linkages than has been discovered in the findings. The role of government is critical here. But the study warns that it must not seek to subject informal enterprises to cumbersome procedures. Lest, operators of the enterprises will rather remain informal to avoid being regulated.
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“Camara, Ebrima Ousman; United Nations. Economic Commission for Africa. African Institute for Economic Development and Planning(IDEP) (2000-03). Features and growth potential of small-scale production enterprises in the urban informal sector in the Gambia. Dakar. © UN. IDEP. https://hdl.handle.net/10855/42561”Collections
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