...Economics, Finance and Administrative Sciences ISSN 1450-2275 Issue 11 (2008) © EuroJournals, Inc. 2008 http://www.eurojournalsn.com Reducing Unemployment Through the Informal Sector: A Case Study of Nigeria Ishola Rufus Akintoye Senior Lecturer, (OOU) Room 116, Department of Economics Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of Ibadan Ibadan, Nigeria – West Africa Abstract This paper seeks to establish that unemployment as one of the macroeconomic problems could be reduced through the informal sector participation provided it is well supported and manged. The informal sector in itself may not be able to achieve much as we have presently due to inaccessibility to credit, but with the on-going policy of the Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria on micro-financing the macroeconomic objective of reduced unemployment, if not full employment will become a reality in Nigeria. The microfinance policy has empowered the many microfinance institutions to provide credit to the informal sector. We therefore advise that the Nigerian Government and all relevant stakeholders continue in their quest towards reducing unemployment while they give their undivided support, in making sure that the informal sector continues to enjoy access to credit to finance its activities and accomplish its goal of unemployment reduction. Introduction Unemployment is one of the developmental problems that face every developing economy in the 21st century. International statistics portray that...
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...Development to End Poverty Productive Safety Net Program Technical and Vocational Education and Training Universal Electricity Access Program iii Table of Contents Foreword ............................................................................................................................ iv PART ONE Background ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 General introduction ……………………………………………………………. 1 1.2 Population, its Profile and Dynamics............................................................................ 2 1.3 The Relationship between Economic Growth, Employment and Poverty Reduction .. 3 1.4 Nature and Incidence of Employment/Unemployment ................................................ 6 1.4.1 Trends in...
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...combinations. Cassim (1982) considers the informal sector participation as “a trap associated with impoverishment” and Habib (2005) considers the informal sector participation as “the survivalist response of marginalised persons with no alternatives.” The informal sector is a part of the economy that is not under the government control and therefore any business conducted in the informal sector cannot be regulated. This paper aim is to argue against the above mentioned assertions made by Cassim and Habib. Is it true that the participation in the informal sector is associated with impoverishment? Is it true that people engage into conducting business in the informal sector because they need to survive as they have no other alternative? These two questions serve as a foundation into developing an argument against the assertions made by Cassim and Habib about the informal sector’s participation. The argument reflects on the entrepreneurial potential and dynamics in the informal sector. This paper firstly discusses Cassim’s and Habib’s assertions to have a general understanding of what they meant. This is then followed by a brief overview of the South African informal sector and an argument against those assertions will be provided using useful example of informal sector participation’s contribution. Finally, a conclusion is provided summarising the paper. The following lines will brighten this essay. Cassim’s and Habib’s perspective of the informal sector Taking into consideration Cassim’s...
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...no choice but to resort to local moneylenders who charge usurious rates of interest or use informal and, therefore, insecure ways of performing transactions such as payments and money transfer. The above is reflected in the quotation by the past Secretary-General of the United Nations: ‘‘The stark reality is that most people in the world still lack access to sustainable financial services, whether it is savings, credit or insurance. The great challenge before us is to address the constraints that exclude people from full participation in the financial sector. Together, we can and must build inclusive financial sectors that help people improve their lives (United Nations, 1997).’’ With almost thirty per cent of the country's population living in poverty, the Government of Ghana clearly faces an enormous challenge to reduce poverty especially in the three northern savannah regions where there is the greatest concentration of poor people. To achieve rapid and sustainable reduction in poverty, it is necessary to have an integrated policy with the various elements of the strategy reinforcing each other. The World Development Report for 1990 (World Bank, 1990) found that poverty can be reduced most effectively by a strategy with two equally important elements. The first element is to promote the productive use of the most abundant asset of the poor, labour. Broad-based economic growth through appropriate macroeconomic and microeconomic policies...
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...1. ------------------------------------------------- Unemployment problems of bangladesh ------------------------------------------------- Rising unemployment and declining share of the poorer populace in national income are two major challenges for the country in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), says a government report. “Appropriate interventions are required so that benefits of economic growth reach the poorest quintile,” observes the report prepared by Planning Commission on progress towards MDGs. In 1992, the poor’s share in national income was 6.5 percent. But it dropped to 5.3 percent in 2005, marking a decline of 18.46 percent in 13 years. A steady annual growth around 5 percent on average in the 1990s and 6 percent in the 2000s helped the country to draw nearer to implementation of many of the MDGs, eight goals that the United Nations member states have pledged to accomplish by the year 2015. Halving the number of people living in extreme poverty, ensuring universal access to primary education, eliminating gender disparities, reducing child mortality rate and maternal mortality ratio, and combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases are among the targets officially adopted in 2000. One of the shortcomings in Bangladesh’s efforts to attain MDGs is failure to make growth process sufficiently pro-poor, says the report, adding that depleting share of the poorer segments of the society in national income and consumption shows that the poor are not benefiting...
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...*RETHINKING THE INFORMAL ECONOMY IN *THE * *NEO-LIBERALIST PHASE TABLE OF CONTENTS *RETHINKING THE INFORMAL *ECONOMY IN THE * *NEO-LIBERALIST PHASE Introduction : The labour markets in developing countries is markedly different from that in the developed countries. The most striking feature of labour markets in the developing countries is its non-homogeneous character. The status of the vast majority of workers in the developed countries is of wage and salary earners. Whereas in the developing countries there is a predominance of self-employment. This non-homogeneous character of labour markets in developing countries also implies that the nature of employment and the manner in which it is created is different in the two world’s. In the developing countries the vast majority of the population is left to fend for itself and create employment out of its own ingenuity, skills and capital. This leads to vast differences in the nature of employment and the creation of dualistic structure of ‘formal’and ‘informal’ components of the labour market. A large proportion of the workforce is in the unorganised or informal sector. These workers are engaged in economic activities with lower productivity resulting in lower incomes. They are also engaged in activities with less stable employment contracts (including the self-employed) and fewer social security benefits. While the wages and salaries of the formal sector workers are periodically revised to counter inflation...
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...FACTORS AFFECTING SMALL SCALE VEGETABLE FARMERS ACCESS TO CREDITS AT ETUNDA IRRIGATION PROJECT IN NORTHERN NAMIBIA. SELMA N. INGULA 26 OCTOBER 2012 Factors affecting small scale vegetable farmers access to credits at Etunda irrigation project in Northern Namibia. BY: Selma N. Ingula Project report submitted to the University of Namibia, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Department of Agricultural Economics in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Diploma in Agriculture. Project Assessment Board | | | | | | |Supervisor (s): | | |MR. B. THOMAS & | | |MS. B. MUDAMBURI | | [pic] UNIVERSITY OF NAMIBIA, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS AND EXTENSION, UNAM OGONGO CAMPUS Receipt Confirmation Signatures |Chairperson:……………………… | | | ...
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...NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (NGOs) 11 RURAL SUPPORT PROGRAM (RSP) 11 AGA KHAN RURAL SUPPORT PROGRAM (AKRSP) 11 SARHAD RURAL SUPPORT PROGRAM 12 NATIONAL RURAL SUPPORT PROGRAM (NRSP) 12 ROLE IN POVERTY ALLEVIATION 12 TRANSMISSION MECHANISM OF FINANCE TO POVERTY ALLEVIATION 14 DEVELOPMENT FINANCE SUCCESS STORIES 15 CONCLUSION 16 BIBLIOGRAPHY 17 Figure 1 8 Figure 2 10 Figure 3 10 Figure 4 13 Table 1 7 Table 2 7 Table 3 9 Table 4 10 Table 5 13 INTRODUCTION Development Finance is the offering of financial services to the entrepreneurial poor that contributes finally to the economic growth. Although the most notable of these services is the provision of credit, many other offerings are a part of Development Finance including credit for business activities and credit for emergency and for the fulfillment of life cycle needs. Many Development Financial Institutions (DFIs) give finance for to the persons that contribute to the development of economy. For this purpose these DFIs facilitates poor for savings and deposits and a source of funding which is crucial for DFIs to promote their sustainability, decrease their dependence on donor money, and strengthen their resilience. While Development Finance Institutions were originally conceived to target the entrepreneurs that have...
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...District – Dar es Salaam. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. ACB - Akiba Commercial Bank CGAP - Consultative Group to Assist the poor CRDB - Cooperative and Development Bank FFI - Formal Financial Institution FINCA - Foundation for International Community Assiatance GDP - Gross Domestic Product NBC - National Bank of Commerce NGO - Non Governmental Organisation NMB - National Microfinance Bank NMFP - National Microfinance policy PFSs - Private Financial Sectors PRIDE - Promotion of Rural Initiatives and Development Enterprise SACCOS - Saving and Credit Cooperative Society SPSS - Statistical Package for Social Science URT - United Republic of Tanzania ABSTRACT The Ojective of the research was to assess the eeffectiveness/contribution of PFSs in reduction of poverty in Kinondoni District Dar es Salaam Tanzania. The research was conducted at NBC branches. The Branches to which the Reseacrh was conducted were Kinondoni Branch, Ubungo Branch, Mlimani City Branch, UDSM Branch and Tegeta Branche. Data were collected through interview and research questionnaires and were analyzed by using quantitative approach. The research study revealed that Tanzania there is a number of Private Financial Institutions providing financial services among Tanzanians...
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...benefitting from expansion. This has directly affected the lives of many citizens in our country. For many, there has been a dramatic increase in the disposable income. The savings, consumption and investment patterns have changed in the past few years. This has meant that there has been an increase in demand for many financial services from different financial firms. The market has responded to this soaring demand with making attractive offers and services for the customers at affordable rates. Since the LPG reforms of 1991, there have been progressive reforms in the financial sector allowing for better and easier facilities and options to the consumer. An increasing financially aware middle class have realized the importance of financial services. Banks have streamlined and rationalized themselves to meet with the changing demands of the people. However, not all the reforms in the financial services sector have still been able to bring in the other half of India’s population who are un-banked. There are many reasons that are obvious for this kind of financial exclusion. Most of the un-banked or financially excluded population of India lives in rural areas; nevertheless, there is also a significant amount of the urban population of India who faces the...
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...Managing Partner at the EBRD, IE Business School and Altura Advisers. Email: scommander@alturaadvisers.com Comments should be addressed by email to the author(s). 1 Thanks to Jeni Klugman for discussion and comments and to Ginette Azcona for help with data. Abstract The paper looks at the experience of advanced economies in dealing with employment volatility. It examines in detail the impact of labour market institutions on equilibrium unemployment and the p ossible le ssons f or e merging ma rket e conomies tr ying to d esign p olicy f or d ealing w ith unemployment and a wider, growing demand for social protection from their citizens. Part of the paper concentrates on t he t ransition e conomies whose i nstitutional c ontext m ay b e r elevant t o other emerging ma rkets. S ome leading principles in policy d esign a re elaborated th at take into account s ome o f t he co mmon f eatures o f em erging m arkets, n otably a p rotected p ublic s ector, large informal sectors and weak institutions. Keywords: employment, unemployment, labour market, emerging markets, social protection JEL Classifications: H53, J21, J65, J68 The H uman D evelopment R esearch P aper ( HDRP) S eries i s a m edium f or s haring recent research c ommissioned t o i nform t he g lobal H uman D evelopment R eport, w hich i s publ...
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...many aspects, such as employment, taxes and innovation that most of times is regarded as something on the responsibility of large firms. In “The Theory of Economic Development” Schumpeter (1934) emphasizes the role of entrepreneur, as a prime cause of economic development, which is development achieved through innovation. Taking this into consideration if the entrepreneur has an important role for development, then this role is achieved through the “institution” that he/she represents. SME activities that would help to propel development and promote the wellbeing of the citizenry most governments are now playing various facilitation roles in collaboration with NGOs and other stakeholders to enable the private sector provide diverse goods and services, including job creation for the people. Many developing countries have shifted their strategic economic focus to embrace the development of an entrepreneural middle-class with the private sector as the engine for attaining sustained economic growth. In Ghana, the private sector is also considered as the engine of growth of the economy and mostly of micro, small and medium size enterprises, generally called the SMEs. The SMEs Sector in Ghana is estimated to be made up of 70% of all industrial establishments. They contribute about 22% to GDP and account for about 92% of...
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...SMEs An Application to Egyptian Case Prepared by: 1- Amr Hassan Elkady 2- Nashwa Mohamed Hussein Presented to: Prof. Hala El-Saied 2010 In September 2004, the Financial Sector Reform Program was launched and endorsed by the Government of Egypt at the highest political level. The five pillars of the program are reforming the banking sector, restructuring the insurance sector, deepening the capital markets, developing a well functioning mortgage market, and activating other non-bank financial institutions and services. The program aims at improving the soundness of the financial sector and promoting an enabling environment for an efficient, competitive and agile financial system that serves Egypt’s development and growth objectives. The progress and pace of the Egyptian Financial Sector Reform Program have been commended at home and abroad. However, we still have some way to go to fully reform the sector and address its main challenges; one of which is ensuring better access to financial services which is imperative to economic growth and development. Improving access to finance allows businesses, especially small and medium enterprises, to capitalize on their growth potential, operate on a larger scale and turn initiatives and ideas into employment opportunities. Moreover...
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...Report On Microcredit and Economic Development of Bangladesh Submitted To: Mahmood Hasan Course Instructor BUS 251 Section - 7 BBA Program School of Business North South University Submitted By: Page No. 1. Executive Summary 4 2. Introduction 5 3. Micro credit 6 4. Three C’s of microcredit 7 5. History 8 6. Micro credit delivery models 9 7. Clients of microcredit 12 8. Microcredit in economic development 13 9. Impact of microcredit on poor people 15 10. Economic condition of Bangladesh 17 11. Microcredit in Bangladesh 19 12. Challenges of microcredit 22 13. Conclusion 23 14. Reference 24 15. Appendices 25 The most important finding in the last two decades in the world of finance did not come from the world of the rich or the relatively well-off. More important than the hedge fund or the liquid-yield option note was the finding that the poor can save, can borrow (can indeed decide on loans to fellow poor), and will certainly repay loans. This is the world of microfinance. The interest in microcredit or microfinance has burgeoned during the last two decades: multilateral lending agencies, bilateral donor agencies, developing and developed country governments, and non-government organizations (NGOs) all support the development of microcredit. A variety of private banking institutions...
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...Success of Microfinance in Bangladesh: Its Determinants, Impacts & Challenges Chapter- One Introduction 1.1 Introduction: In recent years, microcredit, in its wider dimension known as microfinance, has become a much favored intervention for poverty alleviation in the developing countries and least development countries. There is scarcely a poor country and development oriented donor agency (multilateral, bilateral and private) not involved in the promotion (in one form or other) of a microfinance program. Microfinance programs claim many achievements as its impact and an outside observer cannot but wonder at the range of diversity of the benefits claimed. Although Bangladesh has huge potential for development, it is, for various socio-economic reasons, among the poorest countries in the world. About half of the country's population lives below the poverty line with 80% in the rural areas. The burden of poverty falls disproportionately on women, who constitute half of the total population. Logically, therefore, poverty alleviation and creation of rural employment are top priorities in the development agenda of the government of Bangladesh (GOB) which has adopted a broad based approach to poverty alleviation, emphasizing macroeconomic stability, economic liberalization, and support for a number of government agencies and non-government organizations (NGOs). Substantial progress has been made in implementing the microcredit program (MCP), and the scope for its efficient...
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