CC BY
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WOMEN PARTICIPATION IN THE INFORMAL ECONOMY: ASSESSING THE PATTERN OF OPERATIONS AND CHALLENGES IN POST-COVID-19
Samson Adeoluwa Adewumi
Department of Human Resource Management, Mangosuthu University of Technology, Durban, South Africa
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4156-0971
ARTICLE INFO
Article history: Received date 26.07.2022 Accepted date 25.08.2022 Published date 31.08.2022
Section: Management
10.21303/2313-8416.2022.002716
KEYWORDS
Informal economy
women
COVID-19
challenges
poverty
discrimination
casual employment
labour law
harassment
cultural stereotypes
ABSTRACT
The object of research: first, to understand the operational activities of women informal economy operators. Second, to highlight and discuss the challenges of women informal economy operators. Third, to understand the implication of post COVID-19 era for women informal economy operators.
Investigated problem: the dynamics, operations and level of activities of the informal economy and the extent of women involvement, the issues around the challenges women are exposed to as participants of the informal economy, the role and impact of the post COVID-19 on women informal economy operators.
The main scientific results: first, the operational activities of women informal economy operators include street-trading and hawking, casual employment, family business and home-based enterprises. Second, the challenges for women operators in the informal economy include health hazards, gender discrimination and harassment, institutional and social barriers, cultural stereotypes and constrictions to loans. Third, the implications of post-COVID-19 pandemic include liquidation of businesses, increased economic hardship and poverty and little or no State intervention through palliatives. The area of practical use of the research results: ministry of labour and employment, trade unions, women organization, non-governmental organization (NGO's), labour research institute, traders association, industrial court, labour professionals and advocates.
© The Author(s) 2021. This is an open access article under the Creative Commons CC BY license
1. Introduction
Nigeria, like any other developing nations, is still faced with the challenges of the informal economy, especially for women who form the large constituents of participants [1]. There have been several policy enactments on the need for the regulation and monitoring of the activities of the informal economy, in order to engender a conducive business environment for operators [1]. However, there is little or no evidence to support the progress of this policy-action as the challenges of the informal economy are becoming debilitating for operators, especially for women [2]. Given that the regulation and monitoring of the informal economy is not entirely the remit of the federal government of Nigeria, continuous policy advocacy is expected from stakeholders and private partners in ensuring the sustainability of the informal economy for operators, including women participants [2]). Again, these expectations are yet to materialize as the problems of the informal economy continue to escalate amidst tight economic situations in Nigeria [3].
The increasing level of dishonesty exuded by the Nigerian government through the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment towards addressing challenges of the informal economy has further compounded the challenges for women operators. For instance, the government has now neglected the operations of the informal economy, despite its contributions to the gross domestic products as it represents major employers of labour. The concern of economic sustainability for women operators is explained by how the business operations of the informal economy can be designed for the elimination of harassment and gender discrimination and other institutional and social factors affecting women can be addressed. The realization of these objectives has been impeded by a collection of issues including weak policy legislation and institutional and social barriers [4, 5]. In other words, the array of challenges for women informal economy operators continues to swell in the absence of appropriate policy framework for effective operations and activities.
1. 1. The objective of the research
The research objectives that this paper seeks to address are;
- to understand the different operational activities of women informal economy operators
- to highlight and discuss the challenges of women operators in the informal economy
- to identify and understand the implications of post-COVID-19 for women informal economy operators.
The significance of the study is the examination of the operations and challenges of women in the informal economy through the prism of the implications of post-COVID-19. By grilling these themes, it is likely to provoke a more distinct understanding of the activities and conundrums of women participating in the informal economy in Nigeria. In the light of this, the paper takes the locus that the realities of post-COVID-19 is appropriate to engender a distinct perspective of informal economy operations and challenges in relations to women participants in Nigerian context.
1. 2. Problem description
Research evidence has shown that women informal economy operators are exposed to a number of conundrums arising from social, cultural and legal bottlenecks [6, 7]. Other challenges include precarious work conditions, lack of access to loans, poor pay and other related health concerns [8]. The post-COVID-19 experience has conveyed strict consequences on business performances. Expectedly, as witnessed in other parts of the globe, women informal economy participants in Nigeria, have continually felt the impact of the economic downturn, particularly in this era of post-COVID-19 pandemic. Among others, the post-COVID-19 experience has led to the insolvency of businesses, increased economic challenges and escalating poverty. The lack of swift intervention from government has continued to further the challenges of many women operators of the informal economy. These issues form the core of this study. The case study of women is carefully chosen for interrogation in this study. The validation is based on the verity that women constitute the largest number of operators and more entangled with the challenges of the informal economy due to patriarchal, social and stereotypical conundrums [9].
The literature is abound with studies on informal economy in Nigeria including the roles of the informal economy in the development of the Nigerian economy [10]; precarious work conditions and exploitation of workers in the Nigerian informal economy [6] and contributions of urban informal enterprises to the economy of Ibadan, Nigeria [11]. Other similar but distinct studies relating to the role of women in the informal economy include women and informal sector in Nigeria [12]; Female-dominated informal labour sector and family (in) stability [3] and spatial distribution of women informal economy activities in rural areas [7]. From this collection of studies, hardly has there been an interrogation of the post-COVID-19 implication for women operators in the informal economy of Nigeria. This knowledge gap addresses the study's originality. The aim of the study therefore, is to probe and understand the operations and challenges of women operators in the informal economy through the lens of the intricacies and economic challenges of post-COVID-19.
1. 3. Suggested solution to the problem
In line with above highlighted problem and results of the study, the following recommendations are offered to address the gamut of challenges women informal economy operators are exposed to:
- the study recommends and advocate for a swift intervention from relevant stakeholders to commence prioritizing and addressing the challenges of the informal economy, especially in the interest of women operators. This recommendation becomes crucial to allow for a paradigm shift from the status-quo towards the realization of decent work and dignity for women informal economy operators. This becomes important to alleviate the economic hardship of the post-COVID-19 on women economic sustainability.
- the study also recommends that appropriate policy intervention and palliative measures must be genuinely introduced as a way of revitalizing the informal economy for continued survival.
- the study recommends addressing the cultural stereotypes and discrimination against women operators of the informal economy. This recommendation becomes necessary in order to
give women equal opportunities. The implication is the pursuit of realizing their full potential as a pathway to addressing the rising rate of poverty, even as the economic fallout from post-COVID-19 continues to bite harder.
A cursory account of the Nigerian informal economy
The global description of the informal economy is explained as all economic activities performed outside the confines of regulatory and monitoring mechanisms and devoid of standard wage practice and other social protection practiced largely by self-employed persons [13]. The activities and operations of the informal economy are engaged largely by women for survival and economic sustainability [14]. Several contentions have conceived the operations of the informal economy as an offshoot of the liberalized economy of free market conditions that have seen an increase in capitalism manifested in the operations of global labour markets [15, 16]. Interestingly, the free market policy of the liberalized economy has eroded regulations in labour market activities and operations, giving markets powers to liberal capitalists at the expense of exploiting the conditions of the labour market. The economic activities of the informal economy are largely characterized as informal petty-trading and street-selling among others. The argument from the prism of political economists explains that people enter into these economic activities in order to provide basic economic needs despite the poor conditions of work and low remunerations [17]. Thus, the informal economy operators are entangled in an exploitative global economic system wherein the situations of work are largely cruel and depart from decent work conditions [10].
The informal economic activities in Nigeria portray capitalists' penchant for the continued expansion and exploitation of informal operators. In a sense, the enormous majority of Nigeria's labour force is concentrated in the informal economy and excluded from labour legislations and protections [18]. There is a clear absence of labour standards and regulations in Nigeria's informal economy coupled with insecure and poor working conditions [1]. The global informal economy is overblown with different economic activities. In Nigerian context, the majority of the informal economy operators are mostly involved in agro-based entrepreneurial activities with women representing an enormous component of these traders [18]. The absence of skill and other qualities has contributed to the increasing exploitation of the informal economy workers. For instance, the adoption and utility of orthodox labour-intensive activities in production system and long hours of work often result in little or low production outcome [10].
Operators of the Nigerian informal economy are seen as uninformed of safety and protection rules and are often exposed to dreadful working conditions [9]. This explanation is made awful with the ambiguous labour law and the non-recognition of informal economy workers in any known legislation. The activities and operations of the Nigerian informal economy have continued to attract ascending attention within the discourse of employment and labour literature, particularly on the concerns of right to organize and other labour protection [7]. This narrative has constantly remained a national discourse among policy analysts and other labour regulatory institutions in Nigeria. However, there is sparse evidence to support any claim of alleviating the challenges of the operators of the informal economy, especially women who represent a large chunk of participants. This contention constitutes a major shade of argument raised in this paper. The next section of the paper will interrogates the challenges and barriers of women informal economy operators.
An account of informal economy conundrums for women operators.
The global formation and operational pattern of the informal economy has continued to emerge as a pathway to dwindling the increasing rate of poverty [19, 20]. The ensuing argument, therefore, is to puncture the claim that if the activities of the informal economy encourage women from escaping the poverty net, it is still uncertain how this can become attainable with the varying challenges confronting women operators. Then, it is apposite to explicitly give an account of the operations and activities of the informal economy and how these can be interrogated as conundrums for women participants. To give a clear narrative of the challenges of women informal economy operators, this paper explores the tripartite oppression of women from the prism of the individual, institutional and social or cultural factors. The concept of the individual oppression can be seen from self-restriction evidenced in a typical patriarchal culture where women are hardly heard with little or no room for self-expression [21, 22]. Oppression from the institutional conduit
emerges from the strict conditions on rules, policies and other social practices with women always conditioned to the negative end of these rules, while the social/cultural oppression emanates from the constriction of customs, social norms and other forms of cultural prejudiced practices women are constrained with [23].
The preceding analysis can be used as an argument to explain the challenges of women informal economy operators [24]. For example, women operate at low level of organisational planning and structure and are characteristically constrained by the institutional factor to access loans and credit for their enterprise [25]. This argument signposts the failure of the Nigerian government in her bid to provide and lessen the bottlenecks to loan accessibility, particularly for women who have continually been a subject of political and gender manipulations [11]. The challenge of accessing loans for business expansion has continually expose women informal economy workers to myriads of harassment [7]. This contention explains some of the challenges of local government officials melted on women informal economy traders such as street-vendors and small enterprises.
The operations and work arrangement of women informal operators are generally described as deficient in legal safety, support and devoid of appropriate government intervention in line with the right to organizing [26]. The chunk of the operations and business activities engaged in by women operators are not unconnected from the customary roles of street-trading and the goal of pursuing a more appropriate business locations for their enterprise, is often challenged with the societal need for survival and other family responsibilities [27]. The overarching socio-cultural responsibilities and burdens of women operators are a reflection of their survival pursuit as operators of the informal economy [28]. Striking a balance between these roles and the daunting task of operating in the informal economy are challenging for many women operators [29]. Women informal economy operators are often grapple with the challenge of infrastructure and other essential economic needs and amenities for the sale of their products [30]. It is appropriate to argue that the lack of regulatory policy and the compounding effect of the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated the challenges of women informal economy operators. What is not clear is the economic survival of these cohorts of operators as they continue to feel the challenging impact in post COVID-19 era.
Women informal economy operators are often characterized by low wage and poor access to social protection and security [31]. Informality studies have continued to show the exposure of women informal economy workers to health hazard and other unsafe work conditions, gendered violation and increasing discrimination [25, 32]. Gendered wage discrepancies exist between women informal economy operators and formal economy workers as a result of structural employment and gender discriminatory practices [33]. The post-COVID-19 experience has further increase the conundrums of women operators as the Nigerian economy continues to dwindle in performance. Several informal jobs and enterprises have witnessed a huge loss in the COVID-19 era and have continued to do so in post-COVID-19 era [34].
The different economic palliatives rolled out by the Nigerian government to alleviate the economic hardship of informal economy operators, including women are still without evidence as women continue to be challenged in post-COVID-19 epoch [3]. It is no gainsaying that the Nigerian economy is presently witnessing a high time inflation and economic turbulence with increasing cost of living among other economic woes [35]. The challenge for women escalated during this time and the aftermath of the COVID-19 has continued to affect their operational activities as informal economy operators. This claim forms the nub of this study, which is essentially to account for the economic challenges of women informal economy operators' post-COVID-19.
2. Materials and Methods
The philosophical assumption of the interpretivist approach was employed as the philosophical foundation for this study. The assumptions were applied to understand and interpret the trends and myriads of challenges for women informal economy participants, in post-COVID-19 era. The interpretivist research stimulates the opportunity to qualitatively harness and interpret the post COVID-19 challenges of the informal economy for women participants. Hence, this is justified as
it gives room for the assimilation of human element for a deeper qualitative understanding of the research problem [36, 37]. For this study, the human element of women informal economy participants was carefully interrogated to engender meanings from the implications of the operations and barriers of the informal economy in post-COVID-19. The study is designed on the assumptions of the exploratory research design. The exploratory research is chosen to expand the limit of knowledge known about the operations and challenges of the informal economy for women operators in the post-COVID1-19 era.
The study population comprised selected women informal economy operators whose enterprise cuts across different ranges of informal economic activities (see Table 1 for respondents' demographic profile). The study location is selected informal operators' settlement in the Lagos Island section of Lagos State, Nigeria. The characteristics of the population include women informal economy operators in Small and Medium Enterprise which include fabrics, beverages, food vendors, retail traders and other informal activities that are outside the purview of regulation and monitoring. The study, being qualitative in orientation, recruits a total of 14 women informal economy operators spanning different informal economic activities. This sample size supports several arguments in the qualitative research literature as appropriate and sufficient to elicit deep qualitative response and meanings [38, 39]. The recruitment of this sample does not give consideration to any known criteria, however, the level and extent of interaction between the participants and interviewer explicitly affords the comprehensive understanding of participants' opinions and perceptions of the operations and challenges of the informal economy for women in post-COVID-19 era.
The samples were recruited on convenience ground. For instance, it is a well-known verity that activities and trends of the informal economy are characterized by a lack of regulation and high level of structural deficiency. To ensure that a good number of respondents were sampled, the interview arrangements were structured in line with the convenience and availability of respondents. The semi-structure interview type was employed to elicit qualitative data from respondents. This is justified to ensure the uncovering of complementary questions and responses [40]. An interview schedule was employed to guide the drift of questions and responses [41]. The duration of data collection lasted for a total of two (2) months and all the interview sessions were recorded, in addition to note taking, essentially when certain responses were not clear. The range of questions during the interview reflected on an assessment of the trends and operations of the informal economy; the barriers and challenges of the informal economy for women operators and the implications of the post-COVID-19 for women informal economy operators among others.
On ensuring the reliability of the qualitative data, the [42] four strategic measures of trustworthiness were employed viz; credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability of data respectively. For instance, the credibility of the qualitative data was done through ensuring that the opinions and responses of all the respondents were well represented in both the data and analysis. Transferability was pursued by ensuring the transferability of data to other research context. On dependability, all ethical procedures in the data collection and analysis were strictly followed. For instance, the anonymity of all respondents were maintained throughout the study and respondents were advised to participate voluntarily or exit the study if they so desired. Lastly, synergy between the data and results reported was ascertained through confirmability.
After a careful transcription of the qualitative data, the NVivo (v.12) qualitative software was employed to identify themes and sub-themes. Thereafter, the different themes and sub-themes were later analyzed with the content qualitative tool in order to infer deep meanings from them. The analysis seeks to provide deep understanding into the workings and challenges of the informal economy for women operators in post-COVID-19 era. The study follows appropriate approval from the chairperson of the market women traders association (Lagos Island Women Traders Association) who was briefed about the aim of the study and assurance of support was given to the researcher with reference number 20220711, date 11 July, 2022.
In terms of ethics, participants were briefed about the goal of the study and were advised to participate in the study voluntarily without any force or coercion. An informed consent was later granted by all the participants to voluntarily participate in the study.
Table 1
Demographic profile of respondents
S/N Marital Status Type of Business Years in business Dependants Age
1 Divorced Home-based enterprise 7 3 36
2 Married Street-trading 9 4 42
3 Married Street-hawking 5 2 43
4 Single Home-based enterprise 6 2 34
5 Widowed Family business 14 5 43
6 Separated Street-trading 10 3 36
7 Married Street-hawking 9 4 40
8 Divorced Small business 12 3 37
9 Single Family business 15 2 31
10 Married Small business 11 6 44
11 Separated Street-hawking 7 3 39
12 Married Home-based enterprise 12 4 42
13 Singled Street-trading 10 1 30
14 Widowed Small business 12 5 45
Source: Interview session
4. Results
This section of the paper analyses the different themes and sub-themes that emerged from the Nvivo analysis (Fig. 1). This is important to engender a clear analysis and interpretation of the data. The various themes are analyzed in detail in order to provoke a stimulating discussions of the various issues raised in the paper. The analysis is followed with the presentation of the verbatim responses of the respondents and discussion of these responses are followed and discussed in synergy with the identified themes.
Operational activities of women informal economy workers.
The operational activities and arrangements of the informal economy have long been classified as one lacking employment and work structure across the globe [3]. The contention of sustain-ability has continued to form topical issues among policy analysts in the conceptualization of the operational activities of the informal economy. Operators of the informal economy are essentially women who are involved in a range of informal work for survival. The respondents explained a wide spectrum of informal jobs and activities they operate as participants of the informal economy to include home-based enterprise, casual employment, family business, street trading, hawking and other forms of small businesses. This collection of economic activities clearly defines the discourse of informal activities in all forms. For instance, informal economy workers are categorized within the secondary labour markets of any economy, where work is executed based on employers' penchants and survival pursuits. In other words, extant labour legislations enacted for the protection of the interest of the working people are denied in the operational activities of the informal economy.
Women informal economy workers are often employed on casual employment terms with denial to employment rights and other work benefits [31]. It is argued that existing small and medium operational factories in the informal economy employ women on casual terms and their work arrangement remains ambiguous. The argument is further buttressed that there is an increase in the number of women who take up this job in order to fend for their dependants. Respondents illustrate that being out of employment is more dreadful when considered from the economic position. Respondents also argued that since survival goals are being achieved in the informal economy, the nature and context of jobs engaged in with is inconsequential. A woman casual employee who has been employed for almost 7 years as a casual worker in the informal economy explained as follows:
"I am a woman and I am employed as a casual worker. The informal economy is a place I can describe as the survival of the strongest. A lot of women are engaged in casual employment in this informal economy and we just have to get ourselves busy, especially as the formal jobs are not available any longer. No doubt, the nature and context of the job we do as casual employees are devoid of any humane conditions, but the fact remains that we have to do them for economic survival".
The practice of family business is also rife in the informal economy and it's largely managed by women. Evidence from the analysis revealed that most family business are as a result of succession with high evidence among mother to daughter. The principle of succession planning is mostly ignored in most informal economy family business. This has continued to increase the instability and growth of many family businesses as many could not survival a long term succession. The majority of the respondents argued that sustaining family businesses in the informal economy has remained a mirage, particularly as there are no existing structures to guide and manage succession for family business owners in the informal economy. For instance, a family business co-owner recounted:
"I managed a family business which was handed over to me by my late mother and I have been on it for more than 5 years now. My siblings are also part of the business. The nature of the informal economy in which this business is situated is no doubt affecting the growth and expansion. The operational activities of our business are limited to a large extent and we have to struggle with the weakness and unstructured policies of the informal economy as they affect our family business. As women, this issue is more discerning on us in the sense that we need to merge the family business, the issues of the informal economy and its activities and other family responsibilities".
Street-trading and hawking in Nigeria have been established as the most patronized form of informal economic activities, with the majority of operators representing women [35]. This development has continued to soar with the continuous scarcity of formal jobs and other social and institutional constraints between transiting from informal to formal jobs in Nigeria. According to [10], women engagement in street trading and hawking are reflected in the social and emotional attachment between mother and dependants and many women purse economic survival in the interest of their dependants by engaging in informal activities of street-trading and hawking. This analysis explains the peculiarities of the Nigerian women, particularly the Yoruba women who operate largely in street-trading and hawking in order to produce economic saving net for their offspring. The argument from this narration is the fact that activities of the informal economy remain a survival ground for many women, although the needed policy enactment required for its sustainability remains a discourse of controversy as little or no effort have been provoked for its realignment and development, especially in the interest of participating women in Nigeria:
" Since I lost my job in the formal economy, I have been left to do this in order to have some meals on the table for my children as a way of supporting my husband. I had to invest the little I could save from the formal job into the street trading I am doing now. This is a typical informal activity and I have to do it in the interest of my children. You will find out that majority of the people who are doing this kind of informal economy work are women and most of us just have to engage in it so we can continue living. Street-trading is a form of informal economy job or enterprise if you like it and it will interest you to note that it is rapidly growing in the absence of formal jobs for many of us as women".
For other respondents, street-hawking has also been consistent as an informal economic activity among women. This was supported with evidence of the frequency of women, especially at the rural level of the Nigerian society, who engage in street hawking for economic survival. However, the economic activities and gains from street-hawking remain insufficient to address the economic challenges of many informal economy women operators as alluded to by one of the respondents:
"I am left to hawk when I can no longer survive economically due to lack of job. I went into hawking as I do not have the capital to go into any small or big business and whenever I remind myself of my children, I will continue forging ahead. It is a fact that the profit from this hawking is not enough to sustain my children and myself, but it is better than nothing. I have been in the informal economy hawking since the death of my husband".
Challenges of women informal economy operators.
Several challenges were identified by the large majority of the respondents as conundrums affecting women participation in the informal economy. These challenges include the lack of social and legal protection, health hazard, poor wage and remuneration, institutional and social barriers and harassment and gender discrimination. Others include cultural stereotype, dreadful work conditions, non-recognition of known laws and constraints to loans respectively. The concern of lack of social and legal protection for informal economy participants, particularly women explicitly narrates the state of the existing Nigerian labour laws. The content and provisions of the Nigerian labour law have been drafted intentionally to ignore and protect the interest of workers in the informal economy. Participants are perpetually left to be exploited by capitalists. Similarly, the majority of women respondents, particularly those engaged in precarious jobs explain myriads of health hazards that constitute the nature and content of their jobs. Again, this evidently confirms the conditions and work activities of the Nigerian informal economy characterized by dreadful work conditions.
As informal economy operators, especially as women, the existing labour law is not in our favour in any way. The majority of us that work as casual employees in the informal economy are denied any social and legal protection as it affect those in the formal economy. Whenever we try to make a case, we are shown the road out and our employers are quick to remind us that there is nowhere in the law that our rights are protected as workers operating in the informal economy. This is one of the challenges we encounter as women.
A number of the activities and operations of the informal economy are characterized by poor wage and remuneration, leaving operators below the poverty line. This argument is a testament to lack of monitoring and regulation of the activities of the informal economy. Respondents who work as employees in the informal economy recounts their consistent ordeal in terms of wage and remuneration. Specifically, one of the respondents, a divorcee explains how difficult it is for her wage to give her and her children an average meal:
"I work in the informal economy and it is really a difficult venture for me since the past 4 years. The aim is to be able to give my children some decent meals since the demise of my husband. Unfortunately, as a woman, the case has been the contrary as my wage cannot afford me to give my children some decent meals. It is really disheartening that the nature of work we do is not commensurate to the wage we get and this is having a significant effect on our livelihood, especially for a woman like me who have to solely support and take care of the family".
Women have been reported to face countless numbers of harassments and discrimination as participants of the informal economy. The case of Nigeria reflects a wide range of insult and harassment women informal economy workers encounter in the quest for their daily survival. For instance, the height of harassment from local government authorities through forceful and unconstitutional levy imposition on women operators cannot be over-emphasized. In the cause of this, many women are molested and sexually abused by officials who parade themselves as local government staff. To place the illustration appropriately, women remain at the negative end of the informal economy and the level of harassment and molestation continues to ascend.
We are subjected to a lot of challenges as women operators in the informal economy. The most devastating is the concern of the incessant harassments we have to endure from people that call themselves staff of the local government. The situation with these people is not pleasant and they seem not to have structure or clear identification with the local government. I believe this set of boys is just thrown out to harass us because we are women. They come here every morning to demand some levy fees and they do not care even if you have not made any sales. If you refuse them, they harass you and seize your goods. This is what we face as women informal economy workers.
Another respondent explained her personal encounter with regards to being molested sexually:
"I have been a victim of this harassment in a couple of times. I have been sexually molested several times at my insistence in not giving out any money for levy as they often call it. In one of my encounters with them, they took my goods away and while trying to retrieve them, I was assaulted,
molested and harassed sexually by touching me rudely. I really felt bad these times and cried home sometimes as there was no one to fight our fights for us here as women".
Institutional and cultural stereotypes remain critical to the discourse of women development and empowerment. The patriarchal cultural setting of Nigeria has placed many constraints on the extent of women development and how far they can be heard. The cultural ideology around the motive that women are supposed not to be heard has affected the potentials of many women. In the case of this study, the majority of the respondents argued that the existing cultural and institutional stereotypes were hindering the level of their exploits as informal economy operators. They are often exploited by the male participants on the premise that their roles are more within the family space and not supposed to be in competition with the male informal economy operators:
"We are in a difficult time and space as informal economy participants. The male participants often see us as competitors and have severally confronted us that we do not belong here, but rather in the homes. We hear and face these things on a daily basis and this is clearly affecting the growth of our enterprise as operators. As a street trader, I have personally been told that I am going against the culture for competing with the male. This issue remains till today".
Women informal economy operators in post COVID-19.
The fallout from the COVID-19 global pandemic, no doubt, affected the performance of global economies, with job loss and liquidation of establishments. The Nigerian informal sector was impacted with the COVID-19 lockdown and social distancing rules. Small and medium enterprises in the informal sector were considered the most affected since their business activities greatly depend on the everyday interactions between persons. In Nigeria, the large constituents of the informal economy comprised women, especially women with family responsibilities and other dependants [35]. The aftermaths of the economic disruptions of the COVID0-19 pandemic have left many women in the informal economy with untold economic conditions. The majority of the respondents interviewed recounted these conditions to include liquidation of businesses, economic hardship and increased poverty, structural bias and poor government intervention and palliatives post-COVID-19.
The post-COVID-19 economic situation in Nigeria has engendered an unfavourable economic climate leading to the liquidation of many businesses in the informal economy. It is argued that women remained the most affected as several of their businesses have been liquidated due to low patronage arising from high cost of living and inflation. The argument raised reflects the rising rate of business failures and collapse in Nigeria's post-COVID-19. One of the respondents gave an account of the post-COVID-19 experience on women informal economy operators:
The post COVID-19 experience is a not a pleasant one for women operating in the informal economy. I have seen a couple of businesses collapse and liquidated. The fact is that the disruptions caused by the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic have continued to be with us, even in post COVID-19. The high rise of inflation and cost of living among others has forced many women operators out of businesses and trades.
For other respondents, the post-COVID-19 era has ushered in economic hardship and increased level of poverty for women operators in the informal economy. The present economic situation in Nigeria can be described as pathetic and women informal economy operators continue to be more severely affected. This is more worrisome for women bearing the economic responsibilities of their family and other dependents. Accordingly, the increased rate of poverty among women operators of the informal economy calls for swift action in terms of policy intervention. One of the women operators explained this dilemma as follows:
As women operators in the informal economy, we are really experiencing a difficult situation, especially since reopening of the economy after the emergence of the COVID-19 global pandemic. We are literally living in poverty and the financial strength to care for our families is almost not there again. We are in a situation where nothing is moving again in the informal sector. The inflation and economic disruption that we are facing in post COVID-19 is the worst.
Globally, there were evidence of government interventions as a way of cushioning the negative impacts of the COVID-19 on small businesses and informal economy operators. This intervention came in form of access to loans and other palliatives measures to support and ensure the resuscitation of businesses post COVID-19. The case of Nigeria seems different as there were no practical evidence of palliatives and other supports for women informal economy operators. The current political leadership of the country is involved in a number of propaganda, in a bid to score political points in relation to the varied number of financial assistance rendered to women informal economy operators. What is clear is the verity that there is no evidence to confirm intervention and support from the Nigerian government. Respondents assert gross neglect of the Nigerian government in terms of supporting their businesses through palliative measures.
I can speak for myself and a few women I know very well in this informal economy. It is a fact that we were badly affected with the COVID-19 pandemic. During the gradual reopening of the economy, governments in other climes were rolling out support measures for small and medium businesses, especially women. The case is different in Nigeria as we hardly seen any support from the corridors of government. We only heard of propaganda and this was to achieve some political relevance.
Fig. 1. Themes from qualitative data
5. Discussion
The focus of this paper has been to assess the trends and challenges of women informal economy operators in post COVID-19 in Nigeria. The intention is to convey the discussion of women informal economy operators beyond pre and COVID-19 emergence to a more interesting debate of issues in post COVID-19. The analysis of post-COVID-19 affords an understanding of the conditions and challenges of women informal economy operators, especially in the present economic turbulence. Activities and operations of the informal economy have been repeatedly argued as the main sustenance of the Nigerian economy. In other words, it remains an employment nucleus for many Nigerians. Several operational activities of women operators in the informal economy were highlighted and explained. These include street-trading, small businesses, casual employment and home-based enterprise. The collection of these work types explains the structure and trends of business activities of the informal economy. For instance the lack of organization and regulation has continued to expose the absence of decent work ethos in the informal economy [17, 24].
Findings also explained a number of challenges for women informal economy operators including lack of social and legal protection, health hazard, poor remuneration and wage, harassment and gender discrimination and institutional and social barriers. Other challenges are cultural stereotypes, dreadful work conditions, constraints to loans and precariousness. The analysis explicates that women operators are the most affected by the arrays of the informal economy challenges. The current economic realities in Nigeria are structurally ineptitude to alleviate the challenges of the informal economy operators. This deficiency is not unconnect-
ed to the lack of policy action required for monitoring and regulating the informal economic activities. Women operators, constrained by these challenges, can hardly survive the present economic situation in Nigeria. Similar studies have advocated a firm strategic policy for addressing the gamut of informal economy challenges for women [3, 29]. However, such policy must consider the economic intricacies of post-COVID-19 for a positive outcome and economic survival of women operators.
On the significance of post COVID-19 on women informal economy operators, findings revealed liquidation of business, economic hardship and increase poverty, structural bias, poor government intervention and palliative measure. The post-COVID-19 experience for many women informal economy operators can be described as a devastating survival situation. Majority of women who depend on the proceeds from these activities have been badly affected. For instance, the outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic have provoked critical economic situations in Nigeria including an all-time high inflation and the ascending rate of unemployment. These indices have lowered the purchasing power of an average Nigerian, resulting in low patronage [21, 33]. The consequence can be seen on business liquidation and poverty among many women informal economy operators.
Limitation of the study. The limitations of the methodology include the challenges of accessing informal economy women operators, especially with the nature of their enterprise and the need to plan convenient interviews.
Prospects for further research. The study proposed further research in the areas of understanding the implication of labour legislation on the protection of women informal economy operators in Nigeria. In addition, future study can be conducted in the areas of comparative study between men and women informal economy operators in order to situate a clear debate on the most vulnerable gender in terms of participants in informal economy activities and operations. Lastly, while this study was conducted in a metropolitan city, it is suggested that future research can be conducted in another city to see if results converge or diverge.
6. Conclusion
The informal economy sector, no doubt, represents an employment creation hub. Given that the Nigerian informal economy is not accorded the necessary policy action, the study seeks to interrogate the different operational activities of women informal economy operators and the ensuing challenges. To have a broad understanding of these themes, the impact of the post-COVID-19 pandemic on women operators were equally dissected. On this note, it is important to engender a discussion on how the array of challenges constricting women operators can be addressed, thereby creating an enabling business environment for women operators to thrive for economic sustainability. Women informal economy participants with low economic trade can begin to re-strategize for improvement in their venture. While the need to address the challenges remains positive, the poor structural organization, monitoring and regulation of the informal economic activities posit threats to the implementation and realization of any policy action.
Conflict of interest
The author declare that there is no conflict of interest in relation to this paper, as well as the published research results, including the financial aspects of conducting the research, obtaining and using its results, as well as any non-financial personal relationships.
Funding
The study was performed without financial support.
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