— A new report released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) on Wednesday revealed that informal trade has been a key driver of Ghana’s cross-border economy, surpassing formal cross-border trade in three quarters of 2025.
The Informal Cross-Border Trade (ICBT): First Quarter (Q1) to Third Quarter (Q3) 2025 report indicated that the value of Ghana’s informal cross-border trade with its three neighbors, Togo, Burkina Faso, and Côte d’Ivoire, stood at 31 billion Ghana cedis, or 2.69 billion U.S. dollars, while formal cross-border trade value stood at 20.1 billion cedis, or 1.74 billion U.S. dollars.
“Across the quarters, informal cross-border trade accounted for approximately six percent of Ghana’s total trade,” Alhassan Idrissu, government statistician, stated during the formal release of the report.
According to him, Ghana’s trade with Togo, its eastern neighbor, for instance, was largely informal, increasing from 70.5 percent in Q1 to a peak of 77.8 percent in Q3. In comparison, the formal share increased to 33.8 percent in Q2, before easing to 22.2 percent in Q3.
With Côte d’Ivoire, the report said informal trade consistently accounted for more than three-fifths of the total cross-border trade, while 57.8 percent of cross-border trading with Burkina Faso, which was formal in Q1, reversed in subsequent quarters, with informal trade accounting for more than 52 percent.
While the West African cocoa, gold, and crude oil exporter consistently recorded trade surpluses with Côte d’Ivoire throughout the period, the trade deficit with Togo steadily increased from 725.5 million cedis in Q1 to 994.1 million cedis in Q3.
Across all three quarters, the report said Burkina Faso remained the main destination of Ghana’s agricultural products, accounting for a whopping 62.9 percent, while Togo was the leading recipient of fuel exports, accounting for 44.1 percent, in addition to 38.1 percent of food and beverage exports from Ghana.
The GSS official urged policymakers to observe the cross-border trade data and take steps to maximize its benefits to the country, especially in job creation, livelihoods, and wealth creation in the border communities.