Volume 9, Issue 2, September 2014, Pages 440–447
Samson Mutsagondo1 and Jennipher Makanga2
1 Center for Development Studies, Department of Business Management, P.O. Box 825, Gweru, Zimbabwe
2 Midlands State University, Department of Applied Education, P.Bag 9055 Gweru, Zimbabwe
Original language: English
Copyright © 2014 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Between 2005 and 2008, Zimbabwe experienced one of her worst economic depressions since attaining independence in 1980. The Zimbabwean dollar was rendered valueless, basic goods disappeared from the shelves, salaries were reduced to rubbles and a number of companies closed. In the midst of this economic malaise, a group of self-styled illegal informal businesspeople rose to prominence. They replaced almost anything that was formal and dictated life in almost all spheres. All this happened at the mercy of the ordinary law-abiding citizens. The government of Zimbabwe tried every trick in the bag to contain these illegal informal activities, for example, by controlling prices, arresting unlicensed informal traders, limiting daily bank withdrawals and licensing trade in foreign currency. All these efforts were unsuccessful. With the dawn of dollarisation in February 2009, the illegal informal sector was swiftly swept off its pedestal. This study envisaged to assess the exploits of the illegal informal traders and how dollarisation hit them right in the face and lastly it assessed their post-dollarisation survival strategies. This qualitative study was informed through use of semi-structured interviews and personal observation. A sample of illegal informal traders was purposely selected from the town of Chipinge in Manicaland province of Zimbabwe.
Author Keywords: Dollarisation, economic depression, illegal informal sector, profiteering, survival skills.
Samson Mutsagondo1 and Jennipher Makanga2
1 Center for Development Studies, Department of Business Management, P.O. Box 825, Gweru, Zimbabwe
2 Midlands State University, Department of Applied Education, P.Bag 9055 Gweru, Zimbabwe
Original language: English
Copyright © 2014 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Between 2005 and 2008, Zimbabwe experienced one of her worst economic depressions since attaining independence in 1980. The Zimbabwean dollar was rendered valueless, basic goods disappeared from the shelves, salaries were reduced to rubbles and a number of companies closed. In the midst of this economic malaise, a group of self-styled illegal informal businesspeople rose to prominence. They replaced almost anything that was formal and dictated life in almost all spheres. All this happened at the mercy of the ordinary law-abiding citizens. The government of Zimbabwe tried every trick in the bag to contain these illegal informal activities, for example, by controlling prices, arresting unlicensed informal traders, limiting daily bank withdrawals and licensing trade in foreign currency. All these efforts were unsuccessful. With the dawn of dollarisation in February 2009, the illegal informal sector was swiftly swept off its pedestal. This study envisaged to assess the exploits of the illegal informal traders and how dollarisation hit them right in the face and lastly it assessed their post-dollarisation survival strategies. This qualitative study was informed through use of semi-structured interviews and personal observation. A sample of illegal informal traders was purposely selected from the town of Chipinge in Manicaland province of Zimbabwe.
Author Keywords: Dollarisation, economic depression, illegal informal sector, profiteering, survival skills.
How to Cite this Article
Samson Mutsagondo and Jennipher Makanga, “Dollarisation, Exit Illegal Informal Dealers: How the Adoption of the Multi-currency System hit the Illegal Informal Sector in Zimbabwe,” International Journal of Innovation and Scientific Research, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 440–447, September 2014.
