Economy relies on informal sector

 By ABIGAIL APINA 

THE informal sector makes up a very large chunk of the country’s economy, according to the Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council (CIMC).

Executive officer Wallis Yakam said the sector sustained and supported 80% of the people and supplemented the income of formal wage earners although the term “informal sector” invoked negative views.

“The country belongs to those millions who have been making their living in the informal economy,” she said.

Yakam said it resulted it the establishment of the National Informal Economic Policy 2011-15. The policy needs to be promoted through awareness campaigns.

She added the three main economic factors which had been identified as having stimulated the informal economy were rural urban migration, growth of unemployment and the doubling of population to six million in the last generation.

“Each of these factors has put people under economic pressure and required them to find new ways of earning a living,” she said.

Yakam said most informal economy workers were in the rural sector where they needed help and encouragement to increase production of food and cash crops, to help the rural sector increase its production potential.

She added that the informal economy in the urban areas also played an increasingly important role however it had been judged to be a negative element in the society.