LETTERS: Support startups to spur informal sector growth

The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) estimates that the non-informal sector stands at a howling 82.5 per cent of the total employment population.

This makes it one of the highest in the region compared to the 66 per cent sub-Saharan Africa estimate from the International Labour Organisation. Perceived as a regulatory headache, the Kenyan informal sector has, in most occasion, been sidelined in the enforcement of policies and discussion that primarily pertains to them.

It is symbolic to wake up to news of demolished hawker shacks and poignant cries of “serikali saidia” from the victims. Running battles between “Jua calis” and the infamous county authority are progressively becoming the norm.

While it might be true to pay more attention to the other 17.5 per cent formal white-collar sector that contributes massively to the national tax bucket, the informal sector’s indirect contribution cannot be flouted. Its meaningful contribution may slip through the cracks, from clichéd reporting and the emblematic negative bias.

However, things are looking brighter for this part of the economy that has for long been put on the back burner. The increase in adoption of the internet and the advent of tech solutions to public problems has wedged a double-edged sword into operations of the Kenyan informal economy.

While a few have felt the pinch and closed the brick and motor shop, it’s without doubt that the majority have benefited. The migration from full-time employment to contract based part-time jobs exemplifies the revolution that is inevitably looming. Blue-collar is no longer a graduate’s worst nightmare.

It is a source of pride and entrepreneurship chi. Kenya has had its fair share of this internet age bliss. Companies like Uber have not only modernised commute within the city but they have promised, with certainty, a sure source of livelihood to many Taxi drivers.

More impressively, Nairobi has seen a budding increase in tech companies like Lynk Kenya that has introduced the much neglected and most important casual workers at the bottom of the work pyramid, to a digital world of recompensing possibilities.

Through a simple app, a single mother in Kibera working as a cleaner is positively matched with a household in Umoja that requires her service. An art student in University is able to get a part-time job that supports his/her studies.

Such tech companies have leveled the playing ground in the workspace and within no time, the blue-collar sector’s contribution to Kenya’s GDP will not only be massive but an impactful source of county revenue. Resolution of common public problems, which was predominantly a monopoly of the Government, has been devolved to the common citizens.

Not to take away anything from what the government is supposed to do, but tech-based companies are proving time and again that we hold solutions to our problems.

Living true to the old adage of necessity being the mother of Invention. Through change and innovation, our contribution, regardless of how small, will add up to the national tax bucket and ultimately to a more developed country.

Githinji wa Muhoro via email.