Innovators are shaping Africa’s ‘informal economy’(afridigest.substack.com)

https://afridigest.substack.com/p/innovators-are-shaping-africas-informal

1 comments

The OECD[1] has been covering the topic of the "informal" or "shadow" economy for some time. At one point the term "System D"[2] was circulated by various media outlets[3][4][5] on the back of a 2009 OECD paper (which I haven't been able to source yet).

As mentioned in the article, the informal economy was often regarded as a liability due the difficulties of collecting tax revenues, but policymakers have started realizing that a shadow economy can forge successful entrepreneurs (even though the process is often due to brutal necessity).

[1] https://www.oecd.org/about/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_D

[3] https://foreignpolicy.com/2011/10/28/the-shadow-superpower/

[4] https://freakonomics.com/2011/11/01/the-black-market-is-the-...

[5] https://www.wired.com/2011/12/mf-neuwirth-qa/