Organisation and Regulation in the Urban 'Informal Sector': The Street Traders of Kampala City, Uganda

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	Organisation and Regulation in the Urban 'Informal Sector': The Street Traders of Kampala City, Uganda
Author:	Nyakaana, Jockey Baker
Year:	1993
Periodical:	Eastern and Southern Africa Geographical Journal
Volume:	4
Issue:	1
Period:	June
Pages:	17-22
Language:	English
Notes:	biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:	Uganda East Africa
Subjects:	informal sector market vendors Economics and Trade Urbanization and Migration Labor and Employment Economics, Commerce trade urban areas Kampala (Uganda)
Abstract:	The author looks at the street traders of Kampala (Uganda) in relation to prevailing notions of the informal sector and examines their various forms of economic and political organization. Most of these trades are young males (15-25 years) who operate illegally, but official regulation results in containment rather than eradication. The majority of the traders are 'self-employed', and the remainder are either 'commission sellers' and/or 'dependent workers'. Official intervention to promote selected small enterprises is problematical because of negative official and elite attitude; 'illegality' of most enterprises; factional self-interest of vendors; 'leakage' of benefits to large enterprises using commission sellers and/or dependent workers; and, upward mobility by a favoured minority accompanied by worsening conditions for the majority. Ref., sum. (Reprinted in: Eastern and Southern Africa Geographical Journal, vol. 5, no. 1 (1994), p. 56-62, together with a map and two graphs.)