africa

Africa at a Fork in the Road: Taking Off or Disappointment Once Again?
Table 10.1: Distribution of Employment by Sector in Selected African Countries
Source: Golub and Hayat (2014), from labor market surveys.
10.2 Improvements along a continuum
The informal sector consists of all activities operating outside the official legal and
fiscal system. In Africa this definition encompasses considerable diversity and
complexity of the informal actors. Many firms outside the reach of official industrial
statistics are micro-enterprises, whereas others are very large or part of national
or even international networks. Some enterprises straddle the formal and informal
sectors, and thus the distinction between formal and informal status can be viewed
as a continuum rather than a sharp division (Benjamin and Mbaye 2012a, 2012b;
Steel and Snodgrass, 2008; Henley and others, 2006). Many informal enterprises
have a taxpayer ID number, and some maintain sub-contractual relations with
multinational firms.
In most studies of the informal sector, business registration is used along with size
to determine informal status. However, as Fox and Sohnesen (2013) point out, even
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