Informal trade with three neighbours hits GH¢38.4 billion - GSS report

Ghana recorded GH¢38.4 billion in informal cross-border trade with Togo, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire, highlighting the scale of commercial activities that often go unrecorded in official trade statistics.

Government Statistician Dr Alhassan Iddrisu disclosed this at the launch of the maiden edition of Ghana in Numbers 2025 on Thursday, October 29, 2026. He said the country’s first survey of informal cross-border trade had uncovered significant trade flows outside conventional records.

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According to him, the value of informal trade with the three neighbouring countries was equivalent to 1.4 times the previously recorded trade flows with them.

The report also showed that Ghana recorded a goods trade surplus of GH¢148.3 billion in 2025, with exports exceeding imports.

It further revealed that Ghana had 2.64 million businesses in 2024, but only 7.7 per cent operated formally. Micro-enterprises accounted for nine out of every 10 businesses.

“Establishments nearly tripled between 2014 and 2024, while the people working in them doubled,” Dr Iddrisu said, highlighting the gap between business growth and employment creation.

He added that although Ghana’s unemployment rate declined from 14.6 percent in 2023 to 12.8 percent in 2025, more than 70 percent of jobs remained informal, underscoring the need to improve business formalisation and the quality of employment.

Dr Iddrisu said Ghana in Numbers 2025 brings together data on the economy, population, social development, governance, the environment and the Sustainable Development Goals to support evidence-based decision-making.

“When we have our cabinets, parliaments, boardrooms, and newsrooms working from the same figures, the debate moves from whose figures are right to what do we do about them,” he said.

The publication is supported by an online portal that provides district-level data, interactive maps and downloadable statistics.

“A statistic changes nothing until someone acts on it,” Dr Iddrisu said, stressing the need for policymakers and other stakeholders to use the data to achieve measurable development outcomes.

ANAS/MA

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