The inclusion of informal businesses in the city of Cúcuta in the financial system

Abstract

Informal businesses are economic activities that are not registered with the business registration authorities, tax and regulatory bodies, in addition to the fact that accounting and financial management is scarce, and workers usually do not have a formal employment contract. The objective is to propose strategies to include informal businesses in the city of Cúcuta in the financial system. The methodology is based on a quantitative and descriptive approach, where the population is made up of informal businesses that are in the downtown area between 6th and 10th streets and between 0th and 6th avenues. The sampling is probabilistic and uses an infinite population equation because there is no official data on the required census, resulting in 138 people to be surveyed. The instrument consists of a questionnaire adapted from the characterization of informal businesses developed by the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce in 2018. The results present the characterization of these informal businesses according to personal and socioeconomic conditions, as well as information on the time in the activity, the physical space where it is located, the ownership over the premises, the number of owners and the motivations to carry out the work. Next, the critical factors and variables that influence financial inclusion are determined, which is taken as a framework of analysis to structure a proposal that helps promote education, advice, and institutional collaboration, including banks, universities and business development. It is concluded that this problem requires the adoption of a comprehensive approach where the educational and financial spheres intervene at the same time, to ensure that businesses are formalized and remain on the path of growth and compliance with current regulations.