Ghana strengthened its position as a net exporter within Africa in 2025, recording a GH¢34.7 billion trade surplus with the continent, up from GH¢32.1 billion in 2024, according to the Ghana Statistical Service’s 2025 Annual International Merchandise Trade Statistics Report.
While the surplus reinforces Ghana’s standing as one of Africa’s stronger trading economies, the data also points to a larger opportunity: using the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to broaden the country’s export base rather than simply increase the volume of existing commodity trade.
The report notes that Ghana’s trade policy is “increasingly focused on positioning the country as a leading export-driven economy within West Africa and the broader African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).” Achieving that objective, however, requires more than maintaining a positive trade balance. It calls for expanding the range of products Ghana sells across the continent and increasing the role of manufacturing and value addition in regional commerce.
The Ghana Statistical Service places AfCFTA alongside the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) and other regional frameworks as central to that strategy, observing that “Africa’s growing participation in Global Value Chains (GVCs) underscores the importance of robust trade policies that promote regional integration, industrialisation, and market diversification.”
The emphasis on industrialisation and market diversification reflects the next phase of Ghana’s export strategy, where expanding the range of products sold across Africa becomes as important as increasing export volumes. Ghana’s widening continental trade network provides a platform for that shift.
The country imported goods from 54 African countries in 2025, up from 51 a year earlier, while exporting to 51 countries across the continent. The breadth of those trading relationships demonstrates that market access is becoming less of a constraint. The next challenge is increasing the diversity and sophistication of products moving through those markets.
That distinction becomes clearer when examining Ghana’s leading export destinations. South Africa remained the country’s largest African market, accounting for 58.7 percent of exports to the continent. Yet 95.5 percent of those exports consisted of gold, up from 81.5 percent in 2024. Gold facilitates foreign exchange and strengthens Ghana’s trade balance, but its dominance also highlights the limitations of commodity-led regional trade.
A relationship driven overwhelmingly by bullion generates export earnings, but it does not necessarily deepen industrial linkages or regional value chains in the way AfCFTA envisions.
A different pattern is emerging elsewhere on the continent. Exports to Burkina Faso, Togo and Côte d’Ivoire include household plastics, iron and steel products, ceramic sanitary ware, mosquito coils and packaging materials. These are products manufactured or processed in Ghana and sold into neighbouring markets, creating stronger production linkages and demonstrating how regional integration can support industrial activity beyond raw commodity exports.
The distinction matters because AfCFTA was designed not only to reduce tariffs, but to encourage African countries to trade more value-added goods with one another. For Ghana, expanding exports of manufactured products into regional markets could reduce dependence on traditional commodity cycles while creating stronger demand for domestic industries. The existing trade relationships suggest that the foundations already exist; the challenge is scaling them.
The report identifies exactly that opportunity. Its policy recommendations state that “the strong growth in intra-African trade presents an opportunity to deepen Ghana’s participation in regional markets under the African Continental Free Trade Area,” while calling for “strengthening trade infrastructure, reducing trade bottlenecks, improving border efficiency, and supporting regional value chains” to help the country “expand exports within Africa and improve regional competitiveness.” These recommendations recognise that preferential market access alone does not guarantee higher exports. Efficient logistics, competitive production and integrated supply chains remain essential if businesses are to take advantage of the agreement.
The report also points to the “critical role of the private sector, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in driving export-led growth,” adding that this “reinforces the need for Ghana to foster an enabling environment that empowers businesses to leverage opportunities under AfCFTA and other key trade frameworks fully.”
The data suggests that Ghana’s next export challenge is no longer market access, but market participation. With AfCFTA providing access to a larger regional market, greater participation by manufacturers of consumer goods, processed agricultural products, construction materials and industrial inputs would broaden the country’s export base beyond traditional commodities.
Ghana’s trade surplus with Africa, therefore, represents more than a positive balance-sheet outcome. It signals that the country has established a strong platform within regional trade. The bigger prize now lies in converting that platform into broader industrial expansion, where export growth is driven not only by gold, but by a wider range of Ghanaian-made products competing across African markets.
