Nearly half of Ghana’s cross-border trade happens informally – GSS
By Praisebell Rosemond Larbi
Informal trade accounts for almost half of Ghana’s commerce with its neighbouring countries, creating challenges for accurately tracking economic growth and designing effective policy measures.
According to new findings from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), a substantial portion of Ghana’s trade with Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, and Burkina Faso takes place outside formal customs systems, leading to underreporting in national economic data.
Launching the Informal Cross-Border Trade (ICBT) Survey, Government Statistician Dr Alhassan Iddrisu revealed that Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product estimates may underrepresent the true level of economic activity. Informal trade, though vibrant and widespread, remains largely invisible in official records.
“When we acknowledge informal trade as legitimate economic activity, we build a more inclusive and realistic picture of our economy,” Dr Iddrisu stated.
The ICBT survey, the first of its kind by the GSS, tracked the movement of goods and services across informal border routes to estimate the scale and value of unrecorded trade. The results show that informal cross-border trade is a crucial pillar of Ghana’s economic and social structure, sustaining livelihoods across rural and border communities.
The report highlights that informal trade contributes billions of cedis annually to the economy, particularly through small-scale traders, farmers, transporters, and market operators. However, because these activities bypass formal customs procedures, their economic contribution is missing from official trade balances and growth assessments.
Dr Iddrisu emphasised that the aim of the exercise is not to suppress informal trade but to integrate it into national planning and policy frameworks. Informal trade ensures food availability, supports cross-border social ties, and drives local enterprise, but its invisibility in data distorts economic planning.
“Now we have the data on informal trade. Let us use it to design policies that are grounded in evidence,” he urged.
The GSS is calling on government, the private sector, and regional bodies to leverage the new data to improve border infrastructure, simplify trader registration and financing schemes, and harmonise customs procedures under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
