This paper investigates the ways in which linkages between the informal and
formal segments of an economy may yield benefits to or impose costs upon
informal workers, based on views of informal traders in Accra regarding their
relationships with the formal economy and its institutions. The data are drawn
from the Informal Economy Monitoring Study (IEMS), with a World Bank study
of informal household enterprises providing context for the IEMS-Ghana study
and a basis for interpretation of its findings. Data from 15 focus groups and
a survey of 150 traders from both central and non-central locations of Accra,
Ghana, are analysed in terms of traders’ relationship to the value chain, non-government
institutions, government and the macroeconomy. The last two are
found to exert a strong, mostly negative influence on informal operators, offset
to some extent by support from member-based organizations and non-governmental
organisations (NGOs). Access to loans from microfinance institutions
was an important influence on traders’ work and was viewed both positively
and negatively. Although there are few visible direct linkages between informal
operators and formal firms, they are to some extent mutually interdependent
as retailers and suppliers in the value chain. Taking advantage of the potential
synergy in informal-formal linkages will require government and other actors to
become more proactive in facilitating, rather than denying, infrastructure, support
services and adequate space for informal traders. The probability of such
an outcome depends on the ability of informal traders to organise themselves.