Informal trade has taken off in the streets of Libreville, the capital of Gabon, in recent years and is a lucrative business that bursts several billion CFA francs per year, according to an estimate by the Ministry of Finance and Finance. Economy. In addition to escaping the control of the state, it disturbs the public authorities.
The once-virtually informal sector did not really come into existence with rampant inflation that began in 1986. During the 1993-1995 period, prices had risen from 32.4 to 35.6% and in a smaller 1996. Informal trade has created waves of inflation spontaneously maintained by traders wanting to get rich in the short term.
“The crisis in Gabon was amplified after the devaluation of the CFA franc in 1994. Today, because of the fall in the price of a barrel of oil and the depletion of oil reserves, the crisis is jeopardizing a crisis. a large part of the economic fabric, with the result that the state revenue will fall “, comments Michel Nzamba, tax inspector.
The economic crisis brings forth a local tax policy
A few years ago, informal trade was essentially the area of intervention of West Africans and Cameroonian neighbors. Gabonese people have recently become interested. Having become very numerous, the street traders compete dangerously with the legally installed shops. The products are expensive in Gabon because they are most often imported. The country which is populated by a little less than two million inhabitants has not yet arrived to completely assume its food self-sufficiency. To curb the increase in prices, the government had recently revised down a list of basic necessities because the cost of living no longer allows the poorest people to live decently on a daily basis.
“The informal sector has been used by a few operators who have not been able to obtain credit, to set up business with structure and urban management,” explained Colette Mezui, a teacher converted into the sale of jewelery imported from Benin.
Today, women who have gone informal and have succeeded, regularize their activities to justify the source of their capital. Even if they have trouble adjusting to the country’s tax rules.
“Meanwhile, the country’s authorities are also trying to reorganize the entrepreneurial landscape by reinforcing their role of creating business, eliminating distortions in the market and bringing out the dynamism of the productive system,” said an agent. of bank.
“The informal trade represents a significant tax loss for the state and despite the hunt for street traders and traders by the municipal police, the informal activity has settled and is part of everyday life,” says a controller the town hall of Libreville, whose service is responsible for keeping street vendors away from public buildings.
Paradoxically, it is the civil servants who are the best customers of the informal sector because initially limited to the street, the informal trade has gained the offices where some officials sometimes buy on credit. Indeed, the population among which agents of the State, finds its account.
With the cost of living and the constant price spike, some Gabonese discouraged to wait indefinitely for a job in the public service, the country’s largest employer, have found the vocations of investors and everything has become a pretext to trade.
