Impact of Informal Cross Border Trade on the Socio- Economic Development of Small Scale Traders in Rwanda. Case of Women Informal Cross Border Traders in Rubavu District

Abstract

This study seeks to explore the impact of informal cross border trade on the socio-economic development of small scale traders. The Objectives were to evaluate the contribution of informal cross border trade on the creation of jobs, income generation, education and health, evaluate the impact of informal cross border trade on wealth creation. The research questions used to accomplish the purpose of this study focused on finding out the impact of informal cross border trade on socio-economic development. The following hypotheses were adopted to guide the analysis. : ―Informal Cross Border Trade contributes to socio-economic development”, this was tested by assessing the impact of informal cross border trade on socio-economic indicators such income, employment, food security, education and health. This study was qualitative and quantitative in design. The stratified randomly sampling technique, purposive samplings were both employed to draw the study sample, which comprised sixty eighty women informal cross border traders operating along Rwanda‘s border with DRC in Rubavu district. Major findings of the study are: informal cross border trade has enabled people to increase their income; to get employment opportunities and achieve different socio-economic achievement therefore we concluded that informal cross border trade is one of the tools which can help to attain socio-economic development in Rwanda especially for an educated people .The policy implication is that the Government of Rwanda should continue for advocating for improved treatment of Rwandan informal cross border traders while they are in DRC.