ILLEGAL URBAN ENTREPRENEURSHIP? THE CASE OF STREET VENDORS IN LAGOS, NIGERIA

Taibat Lawanson

Abstract


This paper considers the vulnerabilities experienced in making a living as a street trader in Lagos, Nigeria. Using the Tejuosho - Yaba - Ojuelegba - Barracks quadrant as a case study, the paper investigates the socio-economic profile of street traders, their basic survival strategies and goes further to examine the interface between street vendors and related urban stakeholders. Relying on both qualitative (informed participant interviews) and quantitative (survey by purposive sampling) data analysis, the study revealed that most of the respondents were aged between 16 and 35 years old and operated subsistence enterprises which were begun due to unemployment and the high cost of the renting stalls at the nearby Yaba market. The major challenge experienced was the institutionalized harassment by KAI officials, which aided extortion by other local stakeholders. The paper concludes by highlighting the potentials of the informal economic sector and the strategic role it plays in the emerging African city form.


Keywords


Informal; Illegal; Lagos; Street Trader

Full Text:

PDF

References


Abe, T. (2012), Bracing the odds in the face of double tragedy: The Dilemma of Street Trading in Ibadan Metropolis. Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa, 14(8), 1-15.

Adaawen, A.& Jørgensen, H. (2012), Eking out a Living: The livelihood implications of urban space regulation on street hawking in Accra, Ghana, African Review of Economics and Finance, 3(2), 1-19.

Adeagbo, D. (1997), Physical and Socio-economic Impact of Street Trading: Case Study of Ibadan, NISER Monograph Series No. 10, 1997, Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan.

Adhikari, D. (2011), Income Generation in Informal Sector: A Case Study of the Street Vendors of Kathmandu Metropolitan City. Economic Journal of Development Issues, 13(1-2).

Adiko, A & Anoh.K (2003), Activities and Organisation of Traders on the Markets and Streets of Ivory Coast: The Case of Cocody, Treichville, Yopougon, Communes and Some Streets in Abidjan, University of Cocody, Abidjan.

Asiedu, A. & Agyei-Mensah, S. (2008), Traders on the run: Activities of street vendors in the Accra Metropolitan Area, Ghana, Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift-Norwegian Journal of Geography, 62(3), 191-202.

Atoyebi, M. (1984), Alternative Strategies for the Resettlement of Street Traders in Ilorin, Unpublished M.U.R.P Thesis, University of Ibadan, Ibadan.

Ayeni, O. (1980), Street Trading in Ibadan, Focus on Lebanon-Amunigun-Feleye Agbeni and Gege Streets, Monograph of the Department of Town Planning and Estate Management, The Polytechnic, Ibadan.

Basinkski, S. (2009), All Fingers are not equal: A Report on street vendors in Lagos, Nigeria, CLEEN Foundation, Lagos.

Berner, E., Gomez, G. & Knoringa.P (2008), The Logic of Survival Entrepreneurs and the Moral Economy of the Slum, Paper Presented at the UNU – WIDER Workshop 'Entrepreneurship and Economic Development‘, Helenski,

Bhowmik, S. (2000), Hawkers in the Urban Informal Sector: a Study of Street Vendors in Six Cities. Bangalore: National Alliance of Street Vendors of India, (Accessed on 13 January 2008)

Bhowmik, S. (2005), Street vendors in Asia: A review, Economic and Political Weekly, May 28-June 4, 2256-2264.

Bhowmik, S. (2007), Street Vending in Urban India: the Struggle for Recognition. In Cross, J. & Morales, A. [eds], Street Entrepreneurs: People, Place and Politics in Local and Global Perspective, 89-123, Routledge, London.

Bob-Milliar, G. and Obeng-Odoom F. (2011), The Informal Economy is an Em-ployer, a Nuisance and a Goldmine: Multiple Representations of and Responses to Informality in Accra, Ghana; Urban Anthropology, 40(3-4), 264-285.

Bromley, R., & Mackie, P. (2009), Displacement and the new spaces for informal trade in the Latin American city centre, Urban Studies, 46 (7), 1485-1506.

Bromley, R. (1990), A New Path to Development? The Significance and Impact of Hernando de Soto's Ideas on Under-development, Production, and Reproduction, Economic Geography, 66, 328- 348.

Bromley, R. (1998), Informal commerce: Expansion and exclusion in the historic centre of the Latin American city, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 22(2), 245-263.

Bromley, R. (2000), Street Vending and Public Policy: A Global Review, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 20(1-2), 1-28.

Brown, A. (2006), Contested Space: Street Trading, Public Space, and Livelihoods in Developing Cities, ITDG Publishing.

Brown, A. and Kristiansen, A. (2009), Urban Policies and the Right to the City: Rights, Responsibilities and Citizanship, UN-Habitat - Policy Paper Series on Management of Social Transformations.

Budlender, D. Buwembo, P. & Shabala, N. (2001), `Country Case Study: South Africa’; The Informal Economy: Statistical Data and Research Findings. ILO, Geneva.

Charman, A., Petersen, L. & Piper, L. (2012), Informality disallowed? State restrictions on informal traders and micro-enterprises, Paper presented at the Towards Carnegie 3 Conference, September, Cape Town.

Charmes, J. (1998), Street Vendors in Africa: Data and Methods. United Nations Statistical Division, New York.

Charmes, J. (2000), Informal Scector, Poverty and Gender: A Review of Empirical Evidence; Background paper for WORLD Development Report 2001.

Cross, J. (1998), Informal Politics – Street Vendors and the Statei In Mexico City, Stanford, Stanford University Press, California.

Cross, J. (2000), Street Vendors, Modernity and Postmodernity: Conflict and Compromise in the Global Economy, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 20(1-2), 30-52.

Cross, J., & Morales, A. (2007), Introduction: Locating Street Markets in the Modern/Postmodern World.i In J. Cross & A. Morales [eds], Street Entrepreneurs: People, Place and Politics in Local and Global Perspective, 1-13, Routledge, London.

de Soto, H. (1989), The Other Path: The Economic Answer to Terrorism, Harper and Row, London.

de Soto, H. (2000), The Mystery of Capitalism: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and fails everywhere else, Basic Books, New York.

Dimas, H. (2008), Street Vendors: Urban Problem and Economic Potential. Working Paper in Economics and Development Studies NO 200803, Padjadjaran University.

Donovan, M. (2008), Informal Cities and the Contestation of Public Space: The Case of Bogotá's Street Vendors, 1988—2003. Urban Studies, 45(1), 29-51.

The Economist Intelligence Unit (2013), Global Livability Report, The Economist. Available at (Accessed on 2 January 2014).

Ekpenyong, S. & Sibiri, A. (2011), Street Trading and Child Labour in Yenegoa. Journal of Scientific Research in Education, 4(1), 36-46, (Accessed on 19 July 2012)

Fernández-Kelly, P &Shefner, J (2006), Out of the Shadows: Political Action and the Informal Economy in Latin America, Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, Pa.

Ferragut, S. (2009), From the Stall to the Store: The Formalization of Street Vendors in Quito, Equador. (MA Thesis), Institute of Social studies, The Hague.

Fischer.A (2008), Resolving the Theoretical Ambiguities of Social Exclusion with reference to Polarisation and Conflict, DESTIN Working Paper 08-90, London School of Economics, London.

Harvey, D. (1973), Social Justice and the City, Edward Arnold Publishers, London.

Harvey, D. (2003), Debates and Developments: The Right to the City, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 27(4), 939-941.

Herrera, J., Kuépié, M. Nordman, C., Oudin, X. & Roubaud, F. (2011), Informal Sector and Informal Employment: Overview of Data for Eleven Cities in ten Developing Countries." In WIEGO Urban Policies Resource Document, (Accessed on 20 June 2013).

International Labour Organization (2002), Decent Work and the Informal Economy, International Labor Office, Geneva.

International Labour Organization (2006), The Informal Economy, Labor Protection and Street Vending: Cambodia, India, Malaysia, Mongolia and Thailand, Bangkok, Thailand.

Jimu, I. (2005), Negotiated Economic Opportunity and Power: Perspectives and Perceptions of Street Vending in Urban Malawi, Africa Development, 20(4), 35–51.

Kamunyori, S. (2007), A Growing Space for Dialogue: the Case of Street Vending in Nairobi’s Central Business District. Unpublished MCP Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Kareem, F. (2011), Slap to a man’s pride sets off tumult in Tunisia’, New York Times, pp 2, January 21, 2011.

Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Law (2000)

Lagos State Ministry of Environment (2011), Transcript of Press Conference with Commissioner of Environment, Mr Tunji Bello, November 27, 2011.

Lagos State Road Traffic Administration Law, (2013)

Lagos State Street Trading and Illegal Markets (Prohibition) Law, (2003)

Lagos State Waste Management Authority Law, (2007)

Lamarca, M. (2012), The Right to the City: Reflections on Theory and Practice, (Accessed on 18 June 2013).

Lefebvre, H. (1996), Right to the City, English translation of 1968 text in Kofman, E. & Lebas, E. [eds and translators], Writings on Cities, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford.

Lund, F., Nicholson, J. & Skinner, C. (2000), Street trading, School of Development Studies University of Natal, 2000.

Macpherson, A & Ziervogel, C. (2012), Settlements Under Siege: Securing Rights to the City, The Global Network of the Urban Poor Newsletter, (Accessed on 5 September 2013).

Mitullah, W. (2004), A Review of Street Trade in Africa, USA: Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University – Review commissioned by WIEGO.

Mitullah, W. (2003), Street Vending in African Cities: Synthesis of Empirical Findings from Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Uganda and South Africa. Washington DC, World Bank – A Contribution to World Development Report on Investment Climate and Informal Enterprises.

Mitullah, W. (2006), Street Vendors and Informal Trading: Struggling for the Right to Trade, (Accessed on 11 January 2013).

Mitullah, W. (2010), Informal Workers in Kenya and Transnational Organising: Networking And leveraging Resources. Lindell. I [eds] Africa's Informal Workers, Collective Agency, Alliances and Transnational Organising in Urban Africa, Zed Books, London.

Moser, C. (1978), The informal Sector or Petty Commodity Production: Dualism or Dependence in Urban Development? World Development 6(9).

National Bureau of Statistics (2011), National Unemployment Report 2011, (Accessed on 24 April 2013).

Ndlovu, P. (2011), Street Vendiing in Lusaka District. Unpublished MA Development Studies, Institute of Development Studies, Netherlands.

Nnkya, T. (2006), An Enabling Framework? Governance and Street Trading in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in Brown, A. [eds], Contested Space: Street Trading, Public Space, and Livelihoods in Developing Cities, Intermediate Technology Publica, Warwickshire.

Olaniyan, J. (1988) Environmental Performance of Urban Roadside Traders in Jos, Nigeria, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 31(1), 29-34.

Pearce, T., Kujore, O., & Agboh-Bankole, V. (1988), Generating an income in the urban environment: The experience of street food vendors in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, Africa, 58(4), 385-400.

Pattiradjawane. H, Schnepf-Orth, M., & Stoetzer, S. (2013): Negotiating Informal Urban Spaces. Female Cake Vendors at the Pasar Kue Subuh Senen Night Market in Jakarta, Indonesia. - Darmstadt: Technische Universität Darmstadt, 2013, (Accessed on 11 February 2014).

Pietro, G., Garau, Sclar, E., and Carolini, G. (2006), Treating People and Communities as Assets, Global Urban Development Magazine. 2(1).

Potts, D. (2007), City Life in Zimbabwe at a time of Fear and Loathing: Urban Planning, urban Poverty and Operation Murambatsvina, in Myers, G. and Murray, M. [eds], Cities in Contemporary Africa, Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

Purcell, M. (2002), Excavating Lefebvre: the right to the city and its urban politics of the inhabitant, Geojournal, 58, 99-108.

Robinson, J. (2002), Global and World Cities: A View from off the Map, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 26(3).

Saith, R. (2001), Social Exclusion: The Concept and Application to Developing Countries. Working Paper 72, Queen Elizabeth house Working Paper Series.

Sassen, S. (1997), Informalisation in Advanced Market Economies, Issues in Development Discussion Paper 20, ILO, Geneva.

Satterthwaite, D., and Hardoy, J. (1993), Helping slum dwellers to help themselves, Down to Earth.

Simone, A. (2004), For the City Yet to Come: Changing African Life in Four Cities. Duke University Press, Durham.

Skinner, C. (2008), Street trade in Africa: A Review, Working Paper no. 51, Manchester, Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising, UK.

Skinner, C. (2010), Street Trading in Africa: Demographic Trends, Planning and Traders Organization, in Padayachee, V. [eds], Political Economy of Africa, Routledge, New York.

Suharto, E. (2003), Accommodating the Urban Informal Sector in the Public Policy Process: A Case Study of Street Enterprises in Bandung Metropolitan Region (BMR), in Indonesia. (Accessed on 18 June 2011).

Tsitsi, D. ( 2003), Street Vending in Zimbabwe, Women and Law in Southern Africa, Harare.

UN HABITAT (2012), World Urbanization Prospects. United Nations, Nairobi.

Vargas, A. (2013), Legal Empowerment of Informal Workers: Alternative models of regulation for street vendors in Bogota, Colombia; Paper Presented at the Conference Regulating For Decent Work, 2013.

Watson, V. (2009), The Planned City Sweeps the Poor Away...' Urban Planning and 21st Century Urbanization, Progress in Planning, 72(3).

Williams, C. and Gurtoo, A. (2012), Evaluating Compteing Explanations for Street Enterpreneurship: Some Evidence from India, Journal of Global Enterpreneurship Research, 2(1).

Willemse, L. (2011), Opportunities and constraints facing informal street traders: Evidence from four South African cities, 7-16, SSB/TRP/MDM 2011 (59).

Xaba, J., Horn, P., and Motala, S. (2002), The Informal Sector in Sub-Saharan Africa Employment Sector, 2002/10 Working Paper on the Informal Economy, International Labour Organisation, Geneva.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12962/j2355262x.v13i1.a716

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


 

Indexing and Abstracting :

         

 


Journal of Architecture & Environment is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

 

View JoAE Stats