Cape Verdean women receive, on average, 40% less than men in the informal sector, one of the pillars of the economy, despite managing the majority of companies, announced the National Institute of Statistics (INE) of the archipelago .
“The average income of workers in the informal sector was 14,599 escudos [132,15 euros] per month, this value being equal to 19,263 escudos [174,37 euros] among male workers and 11,655 escudos [105,50 euros] among the workersreads the report of the Third Informal Sector Survey, consulted this Monday by Lusa.
The report points out the discrepancy, despite the fact that the majority of Informal Production Units (UPI) are “one-person and run by women,” who also make up the majority of the informal sector workforce.
According to INE accounts, the informal sector represented 13.3% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Cape Verde in 2023, “a considerable weight, but not as significant” as in other countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Despite representing an appreciable value, informality suffers from several weaknesses, among them the precariousness and irregularity of income: the report indicates that only 7% of workers are salaried.
A significant proportion said they were aware of “the existence of social security and the National Social Security Institute (INPS),” but almost a fifth (18%) were unaware of social protection mechanisms.
The results also reveal that, “for the majority of UPIs, the promoters would not be willing to register their activities with the administration or pay taxes,” which indicates “hard work to be done with the aim of integrating them into the formal circuits.” ”, points out INE.
Commerce on the roads and in the open air, in improvised stands, is one of the hallmarks of the archipelago and an example of the predominance of commerce in informal activity.
Even so, the report indicates that it is informal companies in the areas of services and industry “that generate the most wealth.”
Asked about the main difficulties, the promoters asked for “access to large orders, access to market information and credit.”
The III Informal Sector Survey covered 9,918 households, after those already carried out in 2009 and 2015.
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), cited in the document, two billion people around the world work in the informal economy, often without labor protection or social security coverage and in poor working conditions.
“One of the main objectives of producing statistics on the informal sector is to provide information for the implementation, monitoring and analysis of macroeconomic and development policies,” highlights the Cape Verdean INE.
A study published in May by the INPS indicated that six out of every 10 informal workers in Cape Verde are outside of Social Security, with lack of information and having little income being the main causes of exclusion.
Fernando Elísio Freire, Minister of Family, Inclusion and Social Development, pointed out, at the time, the universalization of the system as an objective.
“It is necessary to extend social protection to almost the other half of the uncovered population, with special attention to the informal sector, which dominates the Cape Verdean economy, to domestic workers, whose coverage curve has been increasing, but still below what “That is desirable, as well as self-employed workers,” said the minister.
Source: Observadora
