Street vendors in Francistown are feeling the squeeze. As inflation drives up the cost of goods and services across Botswana, informal traders in the country's second-largest city say the pressure on their businesses is growing harder to ignore.
For many of these traders, the informal market is not a side hustle but a primary livelihood. Rising costs mean slimmer margins, and for sellers working without the cushion of credit lines or savings buffers, every price increase hits differently.
How Francistown's informal economy responds, and who steps in to support it, is a story worth watching closely.
Originally published by AllAfrica.