Street vendors are an integral part of urban economies, offering easy access to a wide range of affordable goods and services in public spaces or simply taking service to the people. 

With the economy taking a toll on every household, street vendors too are finding it tough to make profits from their businesses and stay afloat. 

Every day for the past 19 years, Maria Kangungu has woken up at five o'clock in the morning to sell her vegetables. 

Kangungu does not have a formal job, and that is what ignited her business in 2005.

"I started my business in 2005; there is no work, and the government cannot employ everyone. From my business, I am able to pay for my kid's school fees, buy food in the house, and provide electricity and water."

Kangungu stressed that business is not the same as before as food prices have skyrocketed and she is finding it difficult to buy stock, resell, and make a profit. 

"We are not making profits like before. Back in the day, I used to deposit my profits into my bank account. I used to pay social security, but because things are expensive now, I am not able to. I am pleading with the government and private business owners to assist us in starting small businesses."

On the same streets where Kangungu sells her vegetables, other women have turned to food vending to make a living.

One of them is Theresia Antonius, who embarked on her Kapana business 14 years ago.

"I started my business in 2005. I started this business because I used to work in the bar at the age of 32, and I realised that, at my age, I could not work in a bar, and the money I was making was not enough to support my kids, and that forced me to do kapana business," she says.

As much as informal traders are an integral part of urban economies, they are often met with resistance from the local authorities they find themselves in. 

Challenges faced by informal traders range from restrictions on trading in towns where customers are to being confined in places far from the people who are supposed to support their businesses. 

As one of the oldest trades, informal trading has managed to produce great minds like doctors, lawyers, and educators, just to name a few.