Nigeria's informal economy: Navigating between resilience and vulnerability

    Dr. Oluyemi Adeosun | Editor’s picks | Sep 15, 2025    
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In the sprawling maze of Alaba International Market in Lagos, where the hum of generators mingles with the urgent calls of traders hawking everything from electronics to textiles, Nigeria's economic paradox plays out in real time. Here, as in countless markets across the nation's 36 states, millions of entrepreneurs embody a contradiction that has come to define Africa's largest economy: extraordinary resilience coupled with profound vulnerability. The latest Moniepoint Informal Economy Report illuminates this paradox with uncomfortable precision. While 65 percent of informal businesses experienced revenue growth in the past year, a testament to Nigerian entrepreneurial spirit, only 47 percent saw their profits rise. More troubling still, 42 percent of these operators lack sufficient savings to survive even one month without income. This is not mere statistics; it is the anatomy of what economists might term "profitless prosperity", a condition where nominal growth masks real stagnation, where survival is mistaken for success.

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