Lusaka's Informal Sector in National Economic Development

Abstract

The critical problem facing recently independent African governments is uncommonly rapid growth in the urban population and the demands it generates for social services, affordable housing, food, and employment opportunities. Indeed the rate of urban population growth is unprecedented (see table 1).' Until recently, few African countries had cities with populations of over 1 million and only one, Egypt, had a city of over 5 million residents. Today, the urban population of Cairo stands at over 8.5 million, making it one of 34 cities worldwide with a population of 5 million or more. This distinction, however dubious, will not last for long. By 2025, the United Nations Population Division projects, there will be 93 cities that can boast of more than 5 million residents (see table 1). Twenty-five of these will be in Africa, seven in Nigeria alone. By that time, Lagos will have a population of between 20 and 30 million people. The problem is that current and projected urban growth threatens to overwhelm available urban amenities, social services, food supplies, and jobs. To stave off the impending crisis, governments have implemented social and economic reforms based on substantial state intervention into the urban economy. The reforms have dual intentions to deemphasize economic objectives and to highlight social ones. In emerging African states, governments are attempting to reform and redirect society's goals along the lines of social collectivism, nationalization of food distribution, and economic egalitarianism. Ideologically, these reforms are the basis for a transformation. According to theorists,l the socialist transformation not yet occurred, but the transition to socialism made considerable progress.3 Similarly, it is argued that the progress that been made has tended to be confined to the sphere of distribution and barely touched the sphere of production.... Reforms in the urban food-distribution

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