Detty December has emerged as a recurrent feature of urban economies in West Africa, driven by large-scale diasporic return and intensified seasonal consumption. Despite its growing visibility in policy, tourism, and media discourse, the phenomenon remains under-theorised within development studies and is rarely examined as an economic system with governance and ethical implications.

This paper conceptualises Detty December as a diaspora-driven, SME-centred seasonal economy characterised by compressed demand cycles, informal enterprise dominance, and weak institutional mediation. Drawing on development economics, SME and informal economy scholarship, and moral economy perspectives, the paper argues that short-term demand surges interact with institutional voids to generate concentrated but unstable value creation. While seasonal inflows produce significant income opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises, they also intensify risk exposure, labour precarity, and asymmetric responsibility between mobile diasporic consumers and place-bound local economic actors.

To situate these dynamics within longer-run development patterns, the paper introduces the illustrative case of Eruku Oshodi, a locally embedded cocoa-based beverage, to demonstrate historical continuity in the informal circulation of African-origin value without durable institutional protection or developmental consolidation. This parallel highlights how recurring informal economic systems can generate visibility and value while remaining structurally unmanaged.

The paper contributes to development scholarship by reframing diaspora engagement beyond remittances and entrepreneurship, foregrounding seasonal time as an organising economic dimension, and integrating ethical governance into the analysis of informal SME economies. It concludes by outlining selective, ethics-informed policy directions for engaging with predictable seasonal demand systems in ways that reduce vulnerability and enhance developmental outcomes in urban African contexts.

Seasonal economies, Diaspora engagement, Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Informal economy, Urban economic development, Institutional voids, Moral economy

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