Informal businesses in Africa: victims of the crisis?

Audio 48:30

According to the ILO, the loss of income of workers in the informal sector, caused by the economic crisis, should reach nearly 80% in Africa © Sadio Doucouré

By: Emmanuelle Bastide

50 min

Africa has been hit by one of the biggest recessions in 25 years.

Periods of confinement, curfews, and restrictive measures hit the informal sector the hardest.

Publicity

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), the loss of income of workers in the informal sector, driven by the economic crisis, is expected to reach nearly 80% in Africa.

How to support these very small businesses which represent nearly 86% of the workforce on the African continent?

Can they bounce back thanks to their agility?

  • Frédéric Lapeyre

    , Director of the Country Office of the International Labor Organization (ILO), for Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Togo

  • François Roubaud

    , economist and statistician, research director at the Institute for Research and Development (IRD), stationed at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

    Informal economy specialist.

  • Madani Dia

    , Executive Secretary of the Guinean Private Sector Consultation Platform 

  • Jean-Luc Konan,

    CEO of the Cofina Group, a pan-African financial institution dedicated to mesofinance, the missing link between traditional banks and microfinance institutions.

Also listen on the RFI website: 

►

A report in Bolivia where the covid-19 pandemic has upset the informal sector 

► Eco from here eco moreover devoted to the consequences of covid-19 on informal workers. 

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