In Togo, as in most of West Africa, the informal market is not an exception. It is the norm. More than 80% of employment is estimated to be informal. Yet when we talk about the economy, we often look elsewhere — towards large companies, industrial zones, foreign investment.
What the informal market really represents
The informal market is the mother selling kenkey by the roadside. It is the mechanic repairing motorbikes in a shed with no sign. It is the seamstress taking her orders on WhatsApp. This is not a sector of surplus or of poverty: it is the real engine of the economy.
Among the people I know, most earn their living this way. Not because they have no qualifications, but because the formal market does not offer enough places — and because the informal market rewards effort and initiative directly.
The strengths we underrate
Resilience. An informal trader adapts fast. They change product, place, supplier, with no administrative procedure. That agility is a competitive advantage many formal companies do not have.
Knowledge of the ground. The trader in Lomé's market knows their customers, their habits, their means. That local intelligence is worth more than a spreadsheet filled in from a distance.
The network of trust. Informal transactions rest on the word given, the relationship, the reputation. It is a system of trust that works, even without a written contract or a bank guarantee.
The limits we have to see
The informal market also has its weaknesses, and it would be dishonest to ignore them. No social protection. No access to formal credit. No fiscal visibility, which shuts it out of certain opportunities. And a vulnerability to shocks — one hard season, one burglary, one illness can tip everything over.
The problem is not the informal market itself. It is the lack of structure around it. The tools exist today to change that, if we deploy them intelligently.
What digital can change
Mobile money has already transformed informal trade. The next leap is digital tooling: a simple management system for a trader, a dashboard to follow sales, a route to credit based on real trading history rather than a payslip.
This is not technology for its own sake. It is technology to make visible what is already performing. The informal market does not need replacing. It needs equipping.
What I take from it
Working with and for the informal market taught me that innovation is not always spectacular. Sometimes it is a WhatsApp form replacing an order book. A chart showing sales trends. An automatic reminder for a customer. Modest gains that, multiplied, change a trader's life.