The demographic characteristics of the surveyed informal
cross border traders are shown in Table 1. The
percentages of males and females in the studied sample
were 39 and 61% respectively. The majority of the female
traders (29%) were between ages 31 to 35 years,
followed by those 36-40 years (21%) while the majority of
the males (30%) was between 31-35 and 26-30 years,
respectively. By the definition of youths in Botswana, the
sample can be described as consisting of mainly youths
(18-35 years) (77% of males and 67% of females). More
female traders (41%) than male (30%) were unemployed
while more male traders (43%) than female (38%) were
self- employed. While 22% of the females were employed
in either the public sector or private sector; the
corresponding percentage of the males was 27%. A slim
majority of the female traders (33%) and male traders
(30%) had secondary school certificate/Diploma; 21% of
the females and 19% of the males had junior certificate
while 19% of the females and 18% of the males had a
university degree. More males (8%) than females (4%)
had no education. The single (never married) ranked
highest (44% of the females and 42% of the males); 29%
of the males and 34% of the females were married while
21% of the males and 10% of the females were
cohabiting. An overwhelming majority of the traders (83%
of males and 74% of the females) had been in the ICBT
for only 1-5 years while 15% of the males and 27% of the
females had been in the trade for 6 -10 years.
Close to 58% of the businesses were located in
Botswana, 18% were located in Zambia while about 10%
were either in Namibia or Zimbabwe, respectively and 5%
in South Africa.