Dress your small business in formal clothes and see it grow

Across Africa the informal economy plays a significant role in creating jobs and alleviating poverty. Be it in cities or rural villages, millions of people operate unregistered small-scale businesses. These entrepreneurs include small retail shop owners, taxi drivers, street vendors and artisans.But one perceived problem of the informal economy is that by its nature it is highly unregulated, and more often than not escapes taxation. Elizabeth Kariuki, executive director of the Kenya Association of Women Business Owners (KAWBO), says beyond scooping up more taxes for governments, formalising would also lead to further growth for these micro-enterprises and greater benefits for all its owners.