Street Trade in Africa: A Review

Despite the advances in modern retailing, millions of people throughout the world still make their living partly or wholly through selling goods on the streets. This is particularly the case in Africa.

This paper collates and synthesizes existing knowledge about these vending activities on the African continent. First it considers the theoretical lenses employed in analyzing street trading in the academic literature. Then it reviews the available street trade statistics, contextualized in urbanization, migration and economic development trends. The paper also considers trends in policy and planning and in street trader organization, and concludes by highlighting critical gaps for future research.

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