The Ministry of Trade and Industry, European Union (EU) on Friday, July 22, 2022, validated the baseline report and workplan on the Informal Enterprises Project at the New Brookfields Hotel in Freetown.
The project will support the transition of sustainable growth and formalization of Informal Enterprises in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific regions and it will benefit three regions namely, Africa, Caribbean and Pacific estimated to cost € 20m.
The project will also be implemented by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as the leading implementing partners within a period of 51 months.
The program targets four countries in Africa, namely Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, Mozambique, and Sudan; one country in in the Caribbean – Haiti; and one country in the Pacific – Solomon Islands.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr. Edward Hinga Sandy said that the validation process is a baseline that would support the implementation interface towards the transition of sustainable growth and formalization of Informal Enterprises in the African, Caribbean and Pacific regions, adding it also seeks to address access to finance.
He added that with the project, an integrated policy framework for the formalization of informal enterprises would be achieved that will seek to promote awareness and advocacy work to enhance formalization in development of financial services, commercialization opportunities and exchange of knowledge and technology and resources throughout the targeted countries.
Dr. Sandy mentioned that the review of cooperative policy on the side of government and the ongoing work of legislation will support cooperatives and credit unions to become formalized as the interventions from government noting that as a government, they look forward to achieve the key objectives of the project.
The Programme Officer, Private Sector Development and Trade at the European Union, Nikola Kutin said that the project is an initiative which was done at a global level between Africa, Caribbean and Pacific States and the European Union, adding that the informal sector of these regions were targeted because they share the same informal economy.
He outlined that the program also aimed on four interrelated components, which involve regulatory conditions and incentives to promote formalization; development of financial services of the informal economic agents, or employees working with aggregate and intermediary organizations; supporting informal enterprises transition towards sustainable growth and formalization in Africa Caribbean Pacific regions.
He noted that during the implementation period, countries would also benefit from an exchange of good practices between the selected countries to help normalize their economy, adding that authorities from those countries would also be able to update the regulatory framework, which, he said, would make companies to become formalized.
Kutin mentioned that the program is complementary to other EU funded projects in Sierra Leone in the area of private sector development, access to finance dividends, rural development and trades, jobs and growth program/
He emphasised that, it is important to make sure that this program builds on the existing EU funded interventions and would be complementary to the future ones.
The Officer-in-Charge of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Tonderai Manoto, said that it is important to help informal economic units to generate pathways towards formalization, adding that it is important to take a broader approach, which means gradual transition to formalize the Informalized Enterprises.
He added that the implementation process also involves, to conduct research which provides advisory services to our constituents to be able to facilitate enterprise formalization, citing coordinated legislation, policies and compliance mechanisms are part of the research work.
By George M.O. Williams