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Generating an income in the urban environment: the experience of street food vendors in Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Tola Olu Pearce ,
Olufemi O. Kujore  and
V. Aina Agboh-Bankole
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Extract

The economic condition of workers in the fast-growing urban centres of African countries is of concern to scholars and policymakers interested in developing programmes to alleviate the persistent poverty. However, there is a dearth of micro-level research on the economic activities of the numerous occupations to be found in these settings. This information would provide a more realistic basis for policies and the assessment of competing theoretical models of social change (Moser, 1980). The aim of the present paper therefore is to provide baseline data on the economic situation of one group of workers within the urban economy—vendors of street foods. Street foods are defined as edibles which have been prepared outside the consuming household and are ready for consumption at point of purchase; however, the buyer may take them elsewhere. The study does not include those ready-to-eat foods prepared within the confines of modern establishments with four walls. Modern restaurants and the cafeteria sections of hospitals, prisons, colleges and universities were therefore excluded. The small-scale businesses under study are part of what is known as the informal sector. The study was conducted in Ile-Ife, a university town in Oyo State (Yorubaland). Among the Yoruba, women became active in small-scale trade following changes in the patterns of international trade and in farming since the fifteenth century. This process was also facilitated by colonial penetration into the socioeconomic fabric of the society (Afonja, 1981). Within the trading business the marketing of street foods was dominated by women (Bascom, 1951; Marshall, 1964; Fadipe, 1970). Central to the concerns of this paper therefore are the levels of income generated by these women, the problems associated with the enterprise and possible recommendations on how to improve the situation of food vendors in the urban economy.

Résumé

Se faire un revenu dans un environnement urbain: l'expérience des vendeurs directs de denrées alimentaires à Ile-Ife, Nigéria

Cet article examine les activités économiques des vendeurs de produits alimentaires dans les rues d' Ile-Ife, ville provinciale de L'Etat de Oyo au Nigéria. Les données basées sur 256 interrogées révèlent que le commerce de denrées alimentaires dans les rues représente une activité principalement féminine. La plupart de ces femmes ont plus de 21 ans, analphabètes et ayant une famille à charge. La vente de denrées alimentaires est une occupation qui exige bcaucoup de temps et de travail pour laquelle on obtient une faible rémunération et peu d'estime. Les politiques qui sont basées sur les résultats de cétte etude sont définies.

Type
Women at work
Information
Africa , Volume 58 , Issue 4 , October 1988 , pp. 385 - 400
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1988

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