Informal Sector Business Proliferation: Harnessing Potentials for Development in Ghana

Abstract

The rapid and enormous growth of the informal sector, in spite of its erratic and muddling characterization, provides immeasurable backing for the nation’s economy. This implies that the development of the nation may leapfrog to a boastful height if available resources and opportunities are converged, organized, coordinated and regulated. This study focused on how potential skills within the sector could be harnessed toward the achievement of the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) in Ghana. The paper was purely based on the review of literature, summarizing and giving a critical and evaluative account of existing knowledge related to the area of study. The trends of the informal sector is considered and seen from various studies to be growing and supportive of the economy. Unrelenting efforts to get organized and coordinate the activities of the sector are on-going. Concurrently, several other studies imply the need to revamp the sector (reinforcements, and changes in focus and strategies) in order to achieve the MDGs. The study reveals that development needs keep increasing, bringing along the need for augmented support. Challenges leading to failure in achieving success in the informal sector are slow employment-generating growth, absence of structural economic transformation, high demographic pressure, inappropriate education and training policies, failed labour regulations, no enabling environment for investment, economic choices motivated by politics, and brain drain. Recommendations made to extricate the confusion and guide policy-making for organized informal sector activities include lower-level collaborative partnership (LLCP), clustering and networking, just to mention a few.
Key words: Informal sector; Informal sector employees; Lower-level collaborative partnership (LLCP)