Majority of Kenyans have resorted to self-employment to get daily income as opportunities in the formal employment sector gets elusive.
Tifa’s Survey results of 49 per cent of respondents who report earning income are self-employed at 36 per cent, those employed in the formal sector are at 19 per cent, casual labourers 15 per cent, informal sector 13 per cent. Another 16 per cent of the respondents earn living from agriculture, livestock, fishing or timber business.
According to the survey, the estimated monthly income by the 66 per cent who reported that they are now or were recently earning income, the vast majority report earning less than 20,000 a month. However, a significant proportion were either unsure of their recent monthly income or declined to answer the question.
“While there is a clear correlation between monthly income and the capacity to save at the end of each month, it is perhaps not as great as might be expected, as even more than one quarter those in the lowest income category report being able to do this. Even though more than twice as many in the highest income category say they do this,” noted the researchers.
The sampled earners who are able to save anything monthly prefer to keep their disposable income in a savings account or other form of investment. Others able to save would prefer to share their disposable income with family or relatives.
Investing in business, building a house, education expenses, personal/emergency use, purchasing livestock, and farming are also some areas Kenyans consider investing their disposable income on.
The survey was conducted between 8th-10th September with respondents drawn from Central Rift, Coast, Lower Eastern, Mt Kenya, Nairobi, Northern, Nyanza, South Rift and Western parts of the country.
“From the findings, vast majority of Kenyans remain quite poor, a reality that applies to even those employed/earning income. At the same time, in terms of their current economic position compared to one year ago, most Kenyans report it being worse.”
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