Paga, a busy border town in Ghana’s Upper East Region, has emerged as the heartbeat of the country’s informal cross-border trade, moving more goods than any other entry point during the last quarter of 2024.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service’s latest Informal Cross-Border Trade (ICBT) report, Paga recorded GH¢168 million in informal exports and GH¢116 million in imports between October and December, making it Ghana’s most active informal trade corridor.
The report, which captures the scale of unrecorded trade between Ghana and its neighbours, Togo, Burkina Faso, and Côte d’Ivoire, estimates that total informal trade reached GH¢7.4 billion during the period, equivalent to 4.3 percent of Ghana’s total trade value. This makes the informal economy a significant, though often unseen, pillar of the country’s regional commerce.
From early morning to late evening, the Paga border bustles with activity. Traders on motorbikes, tricycles, and pickup trucks move food items, livestock, cooking oil, and textiles across both sides.
The GSS notes that the Upper East Region, where Paga is located, recorded the highest informal export activity, fifteen times higher than the least active region, Savannah.
Seven of the country’s ten most used export borders, including Namoo Doone, Belimtagna, Kulungugu, Chamataa, Gentiga No.1, and Tambalugu, are all found in the Upper East, underscoring the region’s dominant role in linking Ghana to Burkina Faso.
But the informal economy stretches far beyond Paga. In the North East Region, the Nakaku No.2 border has become a stronghold for imports, moving goods valued at GH¢85 million during the quarter. Along the eastern corridor, Volta Region’s Aflao, Dekeme, and Kpetoe borders remain vibrant trade points, handling large volumes of cooking oil, rice, textiles, and other consumables from Togo.
Aflao Main alone contributed more than GH¢50 million in exports and GH¢52 million in imports, while smaller posts such as Beat 11 and Kpakakope quietly move essential goods that feed local markets across both countries.
In the west, cross-border exchanges between Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire continue through towns in the Western and Western North regions, dominated by food and manufactured products. Even the less active Savannah Region, though recording only GH¢82.9 million in exports, supports significant flows of food and livestock into Ghana’s northern markets. Together, these border points form a nationwide web of trade activity that, though largely unrecorded by customs, sustains livelihoods and keeps goods circulating across the subregion.
The report reveals that Ghana recorded a trade surplus with Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire but a deficit with Togo. Informal trade represented more than 60 percent of Ghana’s total commerce with Togo, 56 percent with Côte d’Ivoire, and 37 percent with Burkina Faso.
These figures confirm that the bulk of Ghana’s trade with its closest neighbours takes place outside formal systems. Beverages, food, and manufactured goods dominate informal exports, while cooking oil, mattresses, rice, and livestock top the list of imports.
Transporting these goods remains a small-scale but high-frequency operation. The GSS estimates that tricycles and motorbikes alone moved goods worth more than GH¢2.3 billion during the quarter, showing how micro-traders power the informal trade network that connects Ghana’s rural border communities to wider regional markets.
Despite its scale, the informal sector faces several structural challenges, including weak infrastructure, limited trader protection, and restricted access to finance. The Ghana Statistical Service has urged policy measures to support and integrate this trade into the national economy through better border facilities, simplified registration processes, and digital data collection systems.
The data show that Paga is not just a border crossing but a national trading hub that reflects the pulse of an economy thriving beyond the formal sector. From Aflao in the east to Kulungugu in the north and Chacha in the Savannah corridor, Ghana’s border communities together form an invisible trading system that moves billions of cedis worth of goods each quarter.
These routes may not appear on official customs ledgers, yet they keep markets supplied, sustain jobs, and maintain the flow of goods across the subregion.
The latest report places a spotlight on this often-overlooked economy, revealing that Ghana’s borders, especially Paga, are not merely points of entry and exit, but engines of resilience and growth quietly shaping the nation’s trade landscape.
