“The informal sector is not a problem to be solved, it is an opportunity to be structured.” – Kwame Owino, CEO, Institute of Economic Affairs, Kenya
In many African countries the informal economy is too often misunderstood as a structural weakness to be corrected. Yet it is where the majority of people earn, trade and save. It is not an economic sinkhole, it is a powerful engine of productive economic activity waiting to be formalised and supported into accelerated growth.
Capital markets must evolve to serve this reality to unlocking the potential. By designing inclusive products, improving access to finance, developing on-ramps into formality and clearly communicating these solutions, we can unlock growth where it already exists, so that it can be correctly recognised, measured and scaled.
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