Retooling for the Informal

More on the informal in Stealth of Nations:

Two articles on Africa show the importance of engaging the informal economy.

First, The Daily Trust from Nigeria points out that government policies must be retooled "to encourage our small entrepreneurs who constitute the informal sector with a view to developing and enhancing their businesses." The writer suggests that 5 to 10 million Naira per local government per year (a pittance: $30,000 to $60,000) is all it would take to make the local economies bloom.
Second, the BBC points to the Eastleigh neighborhood of Nairobi, one of the most run down communities in the Kenyan capital -- but, significantly, not one of the poorest.
Marketplaces, and a million little lean-to repair shops and small-scale factories are what most urban Africans rely upon for a living. But such is their distrust of government officials that most businesspeople in the informal sector avoid all contact with the authorities