Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the state's role in regulating the taxi transport sector in Cameroon, focusing on street checks, law enforcement, and daily interactions. It explores the informal economy, social, political, and economic relations, and the strategies employed by workers to navigate challenges.

Paper long abstract:

This paper provides an in-depth examination of the state’s role in regulating economic activities within the taxi transport sector in Cameroon. It scrutinizes the mechanisms of car licensing, driver’s license issuance, roadworthiness certification, insurance, and bus station allocation. The study further explores the practice of regular street checks by law enforcement officers to ensure compliance with these regulatory instruments. Transcending the formal and informal binary, the paper delves into the interpretation and application of laws beyond their written texts. It investigates how these laws are enforced, and order is maintained in the transport sector. The daily interactions between law enforcement personnel, municipal workers, drivers, and union representatives under these regulations are also examined. The paper highlights the unsaid practices by state officials during operations to enforce regulation, providing a unique insight into the informal economy in urban cities. It discusses the formalization of social, political, and economic relations within this sector, and how state officials perceive work in the transport sector and interact with direct and indirect actors.

Based on extensive research and interviews conducted with workers, employers, and government officials in the transport sector in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in 2020 and 2022, the paper offers valuable insights into the resilience and adaptability of the informal economy. The findings shed light on the strategies employed by informal economy workers to navigate various challenges and the role of government policies in supporting or hindering these efforts. This paper contributes significantly to the discourse on sustainable development in Africa.