The evidence is the wide disparity in government estimates on the size of the informal economy.
While central bank believes $2.5 billion is circulating in the informal market, the Ministry of SMEs has put the figure at $7.4 billion.
Besides this, over 85 percent of SMEs are unregistered and only 14 percent of business owners have bank accounts, according to official data.
The vast majority do not pay tax, despite ZIMRA’s many desperate carrot-and-stick ploys.
The SME sector would only be a sign of progress if Government had a working plan to drive it forward.
Right now, there is no such coherent plan for it.
It is only good for rally slogans and easy money for the well-connected “space barons” who run downtown markets.
With job losses rising, the informal scene is getting crowded, meaning incomes there will only fall lower, and faster.
The FinScope survey estimated that there were 2.8 million small business owners in Zimbabwe, running about 3.5 million businesses.
In total, there were some 5.7 million people in the informal job market; a stark figure if true, seeing as the same survey put Zimbabwe’s adult population at 5.9 million.
Another survey, by Zimstat, said 3.7 million Zimbabweans have some sort of involvement in informal trade.
Each year, universities spill 20 000 new graduates onto the streets.
Unable to find work, they too join the “entrepreneurship” ranks. When human resources experts Industrial Psychology Consultants asked jobless graduates — in a survey — how they were earning a living, most graduates “responded by indicating some form of buying and selling.
Many ideas were pointed out, like chickens, cellphones or some form of services they are offering to people.”
Government also wants to package “artisanal mining”, a euphemism for illegal gold panning, as progress.
In reality, it is a business fraught with smuggling and often deadly violence over claims.
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