Livelihoods Impacts of Urban Informal Economic Activities in Kaduna Metropolis, Nigeria

Abstract

Unemployment and poverty are serious problems facing urban areas in developing countries. To combat these problems, urban residents have devised a way of employing themselves in the informal sector. However, these informal sector entrepreneurs have continually experienced harassment and stigmatization in the eyes of the urban management agencies. This study aimed at assessing the livelihood impacts of the implications of informal urban entrepreneurship in Kaduna, Nigeria. The objectives are to estimate the income of the informal urban entrepreneurs in line with the minimum wage of Nigeria and establish the relationship between the socio-demographic characteristics of the informal entrepreneurs and their income. Purposive sampling was adopted to sample 384 informal respondents for the study and questionnaires were distributed accordingly. However, only 300 copies of the questionnaire were duly filled and returned, representing 78.13% of the total questionnaire. Both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were performed with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). It was discovered that men tend to participate more in informal entrepreneurship. More so, the study revealed that the informal urban entrepreneurs in Kaduna are taxpayers. Furthermore, inferential statistical tests revealed that gender and educational attainment are statistically significant determinants of the income of the informal urban entrepreneurs in Kaduna.  It was therefore recommended that organized marketing space should be provided to these entrepreneurs and they should also be encouraged to acquire formal education. The need to study the impacts of location on informal entrepreneurship was also suggested.