Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET) joins the African continent in celebrating Africa Day. It is a time to reflect on the arduous journey most of the continent has endured in achieving Independence. It is also a time for celebrating our African diversity and that which binds us together, from cultures, languages and foods.
Informal Trading, in particular street vending in much of the African continent accounts for a significant portion of revenue generated with as much as over 70 percent reliant on this trade as a means of survival. Over the last 30 years, street vending has progressed from being a source of the local food chain,to a retail outlet source of cheaper prices goods from neighbouring countries. As Viset it is our hope that the continent’s leaders can enact policies that can improve the lot of vendors and come up with a uniform policy that ensures the upholding of rights to trade freely without criminalization, given our commonalities of struggle and interdependence of cross border trading.
We will continue to unite with our fellow African brothers and sisters to ensure that the lot of vendors is improved in this lifetime.
Africans, we are one!
Source: Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET)
