Covid-19 Pandemic and the Degree of Informality of Sole Proprietor Entrepreneurship (SPE)

Abstract

This study reports a survey conducted July and August 2021 in the cities of Bamenda and Buea respectively capital cities of North West and South West regions of Cameroon amongst 255 sole proprietor entrepreneurs (SPE). The study seeks to examine the personal and Structural factor driving SPE in whole or in part to operate informal and their degree of informality during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study adopted a survey research design. The finding showed that 38.4% of SPE operate wholly informal, 17.3% largely informal, 14.9% largely formal and 29.4% wholly formal since the outbreak of covid-19 pandemic in the cities.  Using ordinary logistic regression model, the study revealed that the structural factors of tax avoidance and tax fraud are high in the cities of Bamenda and Buea. Revealing that there is a high significant likelihood that as tax avoidance and tax fraud increase by one unit, more sole proprietor entrepreneur chose to remain wholly informal within the period of covid-19 pandemic. This suggests SPE have adopted tax avoidance and tax fraud as resilience strategies to overcome the challenges posed by Covid-19.