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The study examined the dynamic link between institutional quality, financial inclusion and the informal economy in Nigeria. These were with the view to examining the institutional influence of financial inclusion on the development of informal economy. Annual data covering the period 1991 to 2020 were used for the study. The study made use of Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) as the technique of estimation. The study found a long run association between the variables and also reveal that financial inclusion and institutional quality directly has a negative but significant effect on shadow economy in Nigeria. This reveals that the development of financial sector as well as quality institutions aids formal sector participation as against the informal sector thus a decrease in shadow economy size in Nigeria. The effect of the interaction of financial inclusion and quality of institution on shadow economy is also found to be positive and significant meaning that weak institution quality has its toll effect on financial inclusion and which result to growth in informal economy in Nigeria. The study concludes that quality of institution in Nigeria is weak and must be improved to favorably promote financial inclusion and successfully mitigate the effect of shadow economy in Nigeria. Therefore, reforms and policies that are required to improve transparency and accountability at all levels of governance as well as improvement in financial system are hereby recommended for policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of employment has become a central global concern in recent times. This makes the government and development partners to be fully engaged in finding a lasting solution to the problems. In the past, development planning efforts were concentrated on the development of modern industrial sector. Today, there is renewed interest in the informal economy worldwide. This is because a large share of the global workforce and economy is informal and because the informal sector is growing in many contexts and appearing in new places and guises. The informal sector serves as a buffer against unemployment in times of economic downturn, allowing an increasing share of the population to earn a livelihood from the sector rather than stay openly unemployed with no income. The sector has also played a key role in cushioning the adverse impact of economic crises. The paper therefore interrogated the nature of employment in the informal sector and is anchored on Modernisation theory. This paper is based on a desk and literature review of relevant articles and publications as well as on employment and the informal sector. The paper revealed that Nigerian Informal Sector is a major contributor to the Nigerian economy, accounting for a significant portion of employment and national Gross Domestic Product and also the informal sector currently accounts for over half of global employment and as much as 90% of employment in some of the developing countries like Nigeria. The paper therefore recommends that efforts should be made by the government and its agencies to create more jobs. Secondly, policies should be introduced to address identified challenges in the informal sector towards improving productivity and incomes of informal sector workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The informal sector is an integral part of several sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries and plays a key role in the economic growth of these countries. This article used a comparative systematic review to explore the factors that act as drivers to informality in South Africa (SA) and Nigeria, the challenges that impede the growth dynamics of the informal sector, the dominant subsectors, and policy initiatives targeting informal sector providers. A systematic search of Google Scholar, Scopus, ResearchGate was performed together with secondary data collated from grey literature. Using Boolean string search protocols facilitated the elucidation of research questions (RQs) raised in this study. An inclusion and exclusion criteria became necessary for rigour, comprehensiveness and limitation of publication bias. The data collated from thirty-one (31) primary studies (17 for SA and 14 for Nigeria) revealed that unemployment, income disparity among citizens, excessive tax burdens, excessive bureaucratic hurdles from government, inflationary tendencies, poor corruption control, GDP per capita, and lack of social protection survival tendencies all act as drivers to the informal sector in SA and Nigeria. Several challenges are given for both economies and policy incentives that might help sustain and improve the informal sector in these two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electronic payments have been suggested as useful tools to reduce, if not eradicate, shadow economic activities, especially in developing economies, where passive shadow economic activities are prevalent. The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) adopted e-Payment in 2009, while the CBN introduced the Cash-less Policy in 2011 in order to encourage electronic payments. These interventions are expected to impact on the level of shadow economic activities in the country. This study is aimed at assessing the difference in shadow economic activities before and after the FGN e-Payment and cash-iess policies. The descriptive study design was adopted, using longitudinal data for the period between 2003 and 2015 on the level of the shadow economy and t-Test for paired sample was conducted to compare shadow economic activities before and after the introduction ofe-Payment and cash-less policies. The study concluded that a larger portion of the shadow economic activities in Nigeria relates to the committed shadow economic activities; thus, increased use of electronic payments may not lead to a significant reduction in shadow economic activities. From the findings, it is, therefore, recommended that the FGN should put in place adequate mechanism to reduce unreported economic activities, while the CBN cash-less policy should be vigorously pursued, especially in areas where large unbanked citizens reside. This can be done by creating awareness of electronic payment media, especially mobile money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]