Official statistics say West Africa trades roughly US$1.7 billion in food across the region each year, but new research from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reveals that the actual figure is closer to $10 billion. That’s six times higher than the numbers most policymakers use.
The gap exists because customs posts only capture formal flows. The massive volumes moving through informal border crossings simply don’t appear in the data.
These traders aren’t smugglers – they are legitimate economic actors operating outside a system that doesn’t recognise them.
The implications run steep. Excluding cocoa and cashew exports, nearly 38% of West Africa’s food trade stays within the region, comparable to what we observe in the European Union. Yet policy debates continue citing the 15% figure derived from incomplete official statistics.
Consider the food security dimension. Sixty-eight trillion kilocalories cross West African borders annually. That’s enough to meet the annual energy needs of 80 million people, nearly a quarter of the regional population. In protein terms, 2.6 billion kilograms of livestock and fish move regionally each year.
This isn’t small-scale, short-distance, subsistence trade. West African countries trade with a median of 12 partners out of 14 possible. Major exporters such as Senegal, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire conduct between 39% and 58% of their regional food trade with non-neighbouring countries.
From our experience at Borderless Alliance, the ground truth never quite matched the numbers on the page. For years, watching the relentless flow of goods at border crossings and engaging with thousands of traders across the region, we knew the trade was there. We just couldn’t see it in official reports.
Ghana’s maiden Informal Cross-Border Trade Survey in late 2024 showed us what we suspected: informal trade accounted for 61.2% of total trade with Togo and 55.7% with Côte d’Ivoire. We have been designing policies for a formal economy that represents a minority of actual commerce.
You cannot manage what you cannot measure. And you certainly cannot design effective food security strategies, infrastructure investments, or trade facilitation measures when your baseline data captures only a fraction of the actual economy.
We invest billions in roads, ports and border posts. Perhaps it is time to invest in the statistical infrastructure that tells us where those investments should actually go.
Thank you, OECD and ECOWAS Commission for this critical research through the ECOWAS Agricultural Trade Programme. The path to evidence-based policy starts with seeing the economy that actually exists.
Ziad Hamoui
Ziad Hamoui is the Ghana national chairman of the regional trade advocacy group Borderless Alliance. This article was first published on the author’s LinkedIn page and will also appear in the Business and Financial Times
Asaase Broadcasting Company airs on Asaase 99.5 Accra, Asaase 98.5 Kumasi, Asaase 99.7 Tamale, Asaase 100.3 Cape Coast, AsaasePa 107.3 (Accra).
Affiliates: Bawku FM 101.5, Bead FM 99.9 (Bimbilla), Mining City Radio 89.5 (Tarkwa), Nandom FM 101.9, Nyatefe Radio 94.5 (Dzodze), Sissala Radio 96.3 (Tumu), Somuaa FM 89.9 (Gushegu), Stone City 90.7 (Ho) and Wale FM 106.9 (Walewale).
Listen online: atlanticafricanews.com/, Sound Garden and TuneIn.
Follow us:
X: @asaaseradio995, @Asaase985ksi, @Asaase997tamale, @asaase1003, asaasepa1073
Instagram: asaaseradio99.5, asaase985ksi, asaase100.3, asaase99.7tamale, asaasepa107.3
LinkedIn: company/asaaseradio995. TikTok: @asaaseradio99.5
Facebook: asaase99.5, asaase985ksi, Asaase100.3, asaase99.7, AsaasePa107.3.
YouTube: AsaaseRadioXtra.
Join the conversation. Accra: call 020 000 9951/054 888 8995, WhatsApp 020 000 0995. Kumasi: call 059 415 7985 or call/WhatsApp 020 631 5260. Tamale: call/WhatsApp/SMS 053 554 6468. Cape Coast: call/WhatsApp 059 388 2652.
#AsaaseRadio
#AsaasePa
#TheVoiceofOurLand
