(FILES) A vendor sells sunglasses at an outdoor kitchen where Baye Fall followers are cooking ahead of Iftar during the holy month of Ramadan in Touba, on March 1, 2026. Estimated at more than 60% in the early 1970s, the number of Africans working in the informal sector has continued to grow in recent years and now stands at nearly 83%, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). More than 90% of the working population is concerned in Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Mali or Nigeria, while the figure reaches 80% in the Democratic Republic of Congo or Ghana. (Photo by PATRICK MEINHARDT / AFP via Getty Images)