CHAPTER ONE:
1.0 INTRODUCTION.
The Definitive Characteristics of Informal Sector.
What is small and Micro-enterprises?
The definition provided by Central Bureau of Statistics (1984) in its statistical publication on employment and earnings as “ this consist of semi –organized and unregulated activities largely undertaken by self employed persons in the open markets, stalls, in undeveloped plots or streets pavements within urban areas and centers. They may or may not have licenses from local authorities for carrying out such activities as tailoring, grocery, kiosks, car repair etc. according to International Labor Organization (ILO)-1972 defined the SME’s as activities that escaped enumeration in official statistics which still happens but in small urban and rural centers. Ryan (1986) defined activities of the sector as those enterprises outside the tax net but cautioned that this is different from tax evasion by the formal sector registered enterprises. But this definition anyway does not hold much truth given that informal sector SME’s in Kenya pay various types of fees and charges to municipal and council authorities.
1.10 BACKGROUND INFORMATION.
One definition of economic development is an increase in national output. This occurs through the production process whose factors include land, labor, capital and human effort (entrepreneurship). According to economic survey 11 (1994), Kenya’s economic growth has fallen from 6% (1960’s and 1970’s), 4%in 1980’s and less than 2% in 1990.
Kenya like other LDC’s took issue with small-scale micro enterprises as one of the seedbed of the future industrial development, which economists contend as the engine of economic growth, and development. This will ensure problems of unemployment and high levels of pover ...