Occupational Health and Safety among Street Traders in Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined two important types of occupational hazards in the street trading activities in Nigeria which are (i) injuries sustained from road traffic accident and (ii) harassment of traders through indiscriminate arrest, seizure and confiscation of merchandise and occasional incarceration of sellers in police cells. The data for the study was generated from a 2011 national survey of 3,873 street traders in Nigeria which was made possible through a research grant provided by the Covenant University's Centre for Research and Development. In addition to the descriptive statistics used in profiling the street traders, the binary logistic regression approach was also used to estimate the log of odds of experiencing occupational hazards in street trading activities. The study found out that 25 percent of the traders have suffered injury, while 49.1 percent have experienced harassment from public authority officials. Given these findings, policy measures that would focus on integrated national development, provide alternative selling points off the main streets for traders who cannot hire a shop, create more decent jobs for educated youths who are forced to take up street trading due to long spell of unemployment, among others, were proposed.