Amen corner!

Finally, someone's talking some sense about the reality of economic development in Africa.

Here's the money quote from Raju Jan Singh, the World Bank Lead Economist for Central Africa and lead author of a World Bank study of Cameroon, where 90 percent of working people are in the informal economy: "Rather than being viewed as a nuisance operating outside the regulatory framework, the informal sector should be seen as an asset for job creation and a way of giving millions of citizens the opportunity to aspire to economic mobility."


The report -- full text here: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTCAMEROON/Resources/CMR_Economic_update.January.2012.pdf -- argues that "recognizing that informal is normal would be the first step in developing effective policies and programs to help households create sustainable enterprises."