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Natasha Chamba, Business Reporter
GOVERNMENT has been urged to come up with deliberate steps and incentives to facilitate formalisation of the small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and unlock wider economic growth opportunities.

With the informal sector constituting the largest percentage of the economic base, director of Labour and Economic Development Research Institute in Zimbabwe, Dr Godfrey Kanyenze, says deliberate interventions are needed to harness growth potential from the sector.

He said formalisation of the informal sector was critical in improving livelihoods and enhancing sustainability to the largest segment of society that lacks a stable income and suffers most from macro-economic changes.

“Bringing informal workers, who constitute about 90 percent of the employed population and enterprises under the protection of the law, would be a major step forward to moving out of informality and towards decent work,” said Dr Kanyenze.

“Decent work has a guarantee of surviving and sustaining not only the individual but also the economy at large. Government must amplify the registration (of informal sector) and implement progressive taxation for small businesses and establish codes of conduct for the employment of workers in the sector, improve labour inspection and new approaches to formalisation.”

To ensure greater respect for the law, he said, policy makers need to extend labour protection to unprotected sectors, and establish a national board to set minimum wages for the informal economy similar to the national wages and salaries board, which sets wages for domestic and unclassified workers.

Dr Kanyenze said it was disturbing that those involved in the informal economy were usually unorganised and poorly represented in social dialogue forums.

“Informal workers in Zimbabwe have no platform that allows them to participate in the national dialogue processes,” said Dr Kanyenze.

“Although the current labour law reform and set-up of the Tripartite Negotiating Forum Bill covers the inclusion of other sectors as and when necessary, there is still need to ensure those working in the informal sector has a voice and a place to air their views at all levels of dialogue.”

Dr Kanyenze went on to say the estimated 90 percent in the informal sector needs legal identity and rights as workers, entrepreneurs and asset holders, for them to gain official recognition and visibility. – @queentauruszw