Author(s)

Isah Adamu Sheneyeh¹, Christiana Abonge¹, Lotsmart Fonjong^2*

¹University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon.
²Cameroon Interdisciplinary Research and Consultancy Network, CIRECON, Bamenda, Cameroon.

Women’s participation in informal cross border trade (ICBT) in Cameroon has progressively become a popular and vital safety net to unemployment. While it has been acknowledged that earnings from women’s ICBT activities contribute to reductions in poverty and women’s empowerment, scant evidence reports the patterns of ICBT carried out by women. This paper seeks to examine the activities of women cross-border traders along the Cameroon-Nigeria border. Using questionnaire and interview guide, the study examines how ICBT is effectively carried out, and the nature and trends of ICBT across the Cameroon-Nigerian border. Findings noted that women involved in ICBT between the Cameroon-Nigeria border are young between 21 - 40 years and married with large families. While the women involved come from diverse demographics and trade with assorted goods, they started off as informal traders with access to business capital through informal thrift channels. By and large, women are motivated into ICBT by capital constraint to start a formal business and the possibilities to make more profit due to tax evasion and smuggling. While women’s ICBT impacts on reductions in household poverty and women’s empowerment, these activities affect state custom revenue. A better policy framework that increases women’s profitability and protects state revenue by addressing custom and police corruption is indispensable for the sustainability of the economic impact of ICBT.

Informal Sector, Women, Transborder Trade, Smuggling, Empowerment, Cameroon and Nigeria

Sheneyeh, I. , Abonge, C. and Fonjong, L. (2021) Rethinking the Nature, Implications and Challenges of Informal Cross Border Trade by Women from Cameroon across the Cameroon-Nigeria Southwestern Borders. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 9, 248-266. doi: 10.4236/jss.2021.910018.