Vane’s food kiosk is not just a business but a lifeline. Initially driven by desperation to provide for her family after her husband’s job loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, Vane’s entrepreneurial success ensures that her loved ones never go to bed hungry.
Vane spotted a gap in the early morning food market and recognised that a kiosk specialising in breakfast foods would require less start-up capital than other ideas she had. As a breakfast specialist, Vane’s day begins before dawn. She rises at 4 am to prepare food for the bustling morning crowd, including those on their way to work and children heading to school.
Daily fluctuations in cooking oil and wheat flour prices present significant challenges, making it difficult for Vane to sustain profits in her business. On top of that, some customers take advantage of the trust extended to them, purchasing on credit before disappearing without repaying.
Vane dreams of expanding her enterprise into a hotel, creating employment opportunities for others, and further supporting the prosperity of her family.
The importance of the informal economy in Kenya cannot be overstated; it accounts for 24% of Kenya’s GDP and also employs five times more workers than the formal economy.
TRANSFORM has been working to understand the current realities and future possibilities for the millions of entrepreneurial Kenyans who hustle to sustain livelihoods across the informal economy (read more about the context of the work here).
Brink, Procol Africa, Busara, Laterite, Ideas Unplugged, and TRANSFORM have collaborated throughout to deliver this work, alongside hundreds of ecosystem actors and informal economy entrepreneurs.
These blogs offer an insight into the lives of some informal workers we spoke to over the course of the project, told through images.