Ghana is exporting more, earning more from international trade, and running a substantially larger trade surplus. But the next challenge is no longer simply how to increase exports. It is whether Ghanaian businesses can use the stronger trade position to build companies that operate and compete across Africa.
Ghana recorded a merchandise trade surplus of GH¢148.3 billion in 2025, more than three times the GH¢44.7 billion recorded in 2024, according to the Ghana Statistical Service. Exports rose to GH¢401.5 billion, compared with imports of GH¢253.2 billion.
Gold, cocoa, and mineral fuels accounted for nearly 86% of Ghana’s exports last year, meaning much of the increase in export earnings was driven by commodities rather than a broad expansion of Ghanaian companies selling higher-value manufactured goods and services abroad.
Local companies must move beyond simply shipping products to foreign buyers and build regional businesses with distribution networks, subsidiaries, partnerships, manufacturing facilities, and service operations across African markets.
There is already evidence that the regional market is available. Ghana recorded a GH¢34.7 billion trade surplus with African countries in 2025, exporting more than twice the value it imported from the continent.
But the cost of accessing that market remains a major constraint.
Dangote Group President Aliko Dangote recently highlighted the problem by saying, “It costs more to ship from Lagos port to Accra than from Spain to Lagos.”
“There’s no way you can do trade with your neighbours like this,” he added, pointing to weak transport systems and fragmented trade routes as barriers to intra-African commerce.
For Ghanaian companies, such barriers can turn a potentially attractive regional market into an expensive expansion exercise. A manufacturer may have a competitive product, but face additional costs from border delays, documentation, standards requirements, transport charges, and fragmented regulations before reaching a neighbouring market.
This is where Ghana’s trade policy needs to move beyond increasing export volumes towards building export-capable companies.
The World Bank has estimated that stronger intra-African trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) could almost double Ghana’s trade with regional partners, while increasing the share of African countries in Ghana’s exports by six percentage points. It has also argued that deeper integration into global value chains can increase domestic value addition, technology transfer, and access to larger markets.
Government therefore has a role that goes beyond export promotion. Ghana needs to work through ECOWAS and the AfCFTA to reduce non-tariff barriers, improve border and customs efficiency, harmonise standards, and make regional transport corridors more predictable.
Payment systems also matter. The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, for example, is designed to allow African businesses to settle cross-border transactions in local currencies rather than relying entirely on hard currencies.
Ghana has already established programmes aimed at helping local firms enter African markets. The National AfCFTA Coordination Office says its Market Expansion Programme has provided firm-level support to more than 2,000 MSMEs, including market-readiness training, trade finance, and market-access initiatives.
Government support will need to translate into more Ghanaian companies establishing operations, partnerships, and distribution networks in other African markets.
Ghana’s trade surplus is therefore an opportunity, but it should not become a reason for complacency. The country needs to move from an economy that earns heavily from what it exports to one whose companies capture more of the value created along the supply chain.
That means helping Ghanaian businesses move from exporting cocoa products, processed foods, pharmaceuticals, textiles, technology, and professional services to building brands and operations that serve consumers across Africa and, eventually, global markets.
