Ghana ranks among top 6 African economies in Intra-African trade
Ghana accounted for nearly 6% of total intra-African trade in 2024, reinforcing its status as one of the continent's leading trading economies.
Ghana achieved nearly 6% of total intra-African trade in 2024, highlighting its trading economy's prominence.
Ghana's exports to African nations increased to $4.8 billion in 2024, reflecting a 17% year-on-year growth in its total merchandise export earnings.
The country ranked sixth in intra-African export share and demonstrated progress in diversifying its export base towards higher value-added goods.
This was revealed in the 2024 Africa Trade Report, released during the 32nd Afreximbank Annual Meetings in Abuja, Nigeria.
The figure represents a marginal increase from 2023 and encompasses both exports and imports with other African nations.
Export growth and trade rankings
According to the report, Ghana's total exports to African countries climbed to $4.8 billion in 2024, up from $3.5 billion in 2023. This gave Ghana a 3.8% share of the continent's intra-African exports, ranking sixth behind countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, and Congo. On the import front, Ghana's share stood at 1.7% of total imports from African nations.
Overall, Ghana's merchandise export earnings reached $19.68 billion in 2024, reflecting a robust 17% year-on-year growth. The report commended Ghana's efforts in advocating for stronger African financial integration, particularly its support for African Union member states to channel 30% of their reserves into African Multilateral Financial Institutions.
Trade diversification gains momentum
The report also highlighted Ghana's progress in diversifying its export base. While mineral fuels remain a major export, Ghana is steadily shifting towards higher value-added goods by investing in industrial value chains and logistics infrastructure. This marks a gradual move away from primary commodities and towards manufacturing.
In West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire maintained its role as a regional trade hub, importing crude oil (mainly from Nigeria) and re-exporting refined petroleum products to countries like Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Mali. These re-exports accounted for over 50% of Côte d'Ivoire's intra-African trade.
Untapped export potential in West Africa
The report estimated West Africa's unrealised intra-African export potential at $7.23 billion out of a possible $13 billion. Six key product categories represented $2.3 billion, or 32% of this gap:
Processed food ($1 billion)
Fish and shellfish ($0.4 billion)
Fertilisers ($0.3 billion)
Beauty products ($0.3 billion)
Africa's Changing Trade Landscape
Globally, Africa's share of world exports declined slightly from 3.5% in 2009 to 3.3% in 2024. Intra-African trade now constitutes just 14.4% of total formal trade on the continent, reflecting persistent external reliance and susceptibility to global commodity price swings.
Nevertheless, the report identifies emerging prospects in the evolving trade environment, such as:
Increased shipping traffic around the Cape of Good Hope
Growing investments from Gulf and Asian economies
Conclusion
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News24
an hour ago
- News24
US envoy plays down AGOA, African visa concerns
The top US diplomat for Africa on Tuesday dismissed allegations of unfair US trade practices and said that funding delays would not derail a key railway project connecting Angola, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. African Union officials on Monday questioned how Africa could deepen trade ties with the United States under what they called "abusive" tariff proposals and tightening visa conditions, largely targeting travellers from Africa. "There is no visitation ban," Ambassador Troy Fitrell said during a press conference at the US-Africa Business Summit in Luanda. He said that US consulates continue issuing visas regularly, although some now come with shorter validity periods due to concerns over overstays. Several African business and political leaders have raised concerns about a sharp drop in visa approvals, particularly for travellers from West Africa, since late 2023. Washington's tariff plans have also added to cooling diplomatic ties with African countries, as some economies — including Lesotho and Madagascar — warned that even a baseline 10% levy could threaten critical exports such as apparel and minerals. But Fitrell said that the proposed US import tariffs were not yet implemented, and negotiations were ongoing to create a more reciprocal trading environment, including through the renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The initiative grants qualifying African nations duty-free access to the US market and is due to expire in September. Fitrell also reaffirmed his country's commitment to the Lobito Corridor railway project, which links Angola's coast to copper-rich Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. "It's not at risk," he said of the initiative. The US International Development Finance Corporation's Head of Investments, Conor Coleman, described it as a "win-win" for US investors and African economies, and underscoring its significance for regional integration. The Trump administration has axed swaths of US foreign aid for Africa, as part of a plan to curb spending it considers wasteful. Angolan President João Lourenço, addressing more than 2 000 government and business leaders at the summit, said US companies should shift from aid to investment-driven partnerships. "It is time to replace the logic of aid with the logic of investment and trade," Lourenço said, urging diversification into sectors such as automotive manufacturing, shipbuilding, tourism, cement, and steel production.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Modernising acquiring: What banks must consider in a changing payments landscape
The acquiring market in Europe and the wider world is undergoing a period of strategic rethinking. Traditional financial institutions are evaluating their role in the payments ecosystem, driven by the twin forces of technological disruption and evolving customer expectations. As someone who has worked closely with banks, payment service providers, and retail platforms across multiple regions, I've seen first-hand how priorities are shifting and how approaches to modernisation differ widely. For many banks, payments are not the most profitable part of the business. Revenue often comes more from ancillary services like credit, FX, M&A advisory, or liquidity management. However, payments are a crucial touchpoint in the broader retail relationship. They're the entry point through which banks build, sustain, and deepen client engagement. Losing that foothold, particularly to non-bank challengers, can lead to a cascade of missed opportunities in more lucrative business lines. As a result, we're now seeing two distinct strategies emerge. Some banks have opted to exit acquiring or reduce their role, choosing instead to partner with third-party providers who bring technical scale and modern interfaces. Others are recommitting to acquiring as a core service, but doing so requires significant modernisation of infrastructure. One common misconception I encounter is that migrating to a modern platform is inherently a years-long, high-risk, multi-million-euro endeavour. For many banks, this perception creates inertia. They recognise the need to improve but feel constrained by the expected complexity of change. The reality is that technology has advanced to the point where integration timelines and costs can be significantly reduced. I've seen implementations go live in as little as five weeks, including commercial onboarding and technical configuration. The key lies in clarity around the migration process: which components move, what remains, how risk is managed, and how internal teams are supported through the transition. Modern acquiring is no longer just about processing transactions; it's about delivering actionable data. Retailers today want transparency: real-time insight into settlement timelines, fees, reconciliation, fraud risks, etc. The ability to provide a unified view across e-commerce and in-store payments is no longer a nice-to-have; it's expected. Many legacy systems, built in an era when data storage was expensive and analytical capabilities were basic, are simply not designed to meet these demands. By contrast, modern systems are built around a centralised data model, allowing for full multi-channel visibility. That shift is transformative, not just for the banks but also for their clients, who can use the insights to improve margins, detect fraud, and streamline operations. Cloud-native architecture is now foundational to any scalable acquiring operation. It brings several benefits: Scalability: Dynamic auto-scaling allows systems to accommodate sudden volume increases without hardware constraints; Faster Development: Cloud environments include out-of-the-box tools for everything from data encryption to monitoring, enabling faster iteration, and Regulatory Flexibility: Local cloud instances satisfy data residency requirements without the need for physical infrastructure in every market. This agility is especially important as acquiring becomes increasingly global. Banks need platforms that can adapt to diverse regulatory environments while maintaining consistency and resilience. Today, acquirers are not just serving small merchants or traditional retailers. They're onboarding platform businesses, app-driven marketplaces, and large-scale fintechs. These customers expect direct integration, instant scalability, and a streamlined commercial structure. They also bring high volumes and demanding use cases, making flexibility and real-time performance critical. I've seen this dynamic play out across Europe, North America, and Southeast Asia. While the market maturity may differ, the core demands are converging – meaning better data, faster settlement, and modular services. As non-bank players grow their presence in both e-commerce and card-present transactions the competitive pressure on traditional institutions will only increase. This is no longer just about modernising for convenience; it's about defending strategic relevance. Banks must ask themselves: Do we view acquiring as a necessary service to support broader relationships, or as a core business we aim to lead in? If it's the former, partnering with external providers may make sense. If it's the latter, then investing in future-proof infrastructure is not optional – it's urgent. The tools are now available. The remaining challenge is mindset. One of the few people in the world with over 20 years of experience in online payments, Kraal is responsible for maintaining relationships with the card schemes, acquirers, PSPs and regulators "Modernising acquiring: What banks must consider in a changing payments landscape" was originally created and published by Retail Banker International, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Could a $10,000 Investment in XRP (Ripple) Turn Into $1 Million by 2035?
Making a big investment in XRP 10 years ago was a very profitable move. It could be quite profitable to build up a position right now, too. The coin's situation now is very different from what it was in 2015, however. 10 stocks we like better than XRP › Can Ripple's native coin XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) carry an investment of $10,000 all the way to $1 million by 2035? In crypto, crazier things have happened. In fact, if you'd put $10,000 into XRP 10 years ago, you'd now have $1.9 million. So, let's analyze the prospects of XRP holders getting those kinds of returns again during the next 10 years. As you probably know, XRP's calling card is offering ultra‑cheap cross‑border payments and money transfers, and its target users are institutional investors and banks that hold large sums of capital. Using XRP or a stablecoin on its chain, banks and other financial institutions can avoid currency exchange fees as well as transfer fees, not to mention slashing days off of their average turnaround times for transfers. And it's this capability that's the foundation for XRP's chances of growing tremendously in the near future. More than 400 financial institutions already rely on Ripple's On‑Demand Liquidity channels, which move money in seconds instead of days and shave transfer costs to fractions of a cent. That utility gives the coin steady transaction demand rather than leaving it at the mercy of pure speculation to drive its price. Furthermore, Ripple has big plans for how to build out an entire financial value chain based around the XRP Ledger, and using most of the features it's developing will require users to own and transact with large volumes of XRP. There are three key developments in particular that will pave the way for significant growth. First, Ripple is rolling out an Ethereum Virtual Machine compatible sidechain, which is a fancy way of saying that it's developing a parallel blockchain that speaks the same smart contract language as Ethereum. In practice, that means developers can port code they already wrote for Ethereum and launch it on XRP without rewriting a single line, while transactions still clear at XRP's lightning pace. That will empower institutional clients to create sophisticated smart contracts while drawing from Ethereum's vast pool of developer talent. Second, Ripple agreed in April to buy the prime broker Hidden Road for $1.2 billion. Hidden Road provides collateral management, trade financing, and credit intermediation, all of which are highly desirable for institutional investors. Folding those services into the XRP ecosystem gives institutional treasurers a one‑stop shop for custody, borrowing, and settlement, thereby eliminating the need to send capital on‑ and off‑chain. Finally, the ledger is carving out a foothold in real world asset (RWA) tokenization, which is essentially the process of recording ownership of bonds, treasuries, or even inventory as crypto tokens so they can be transferred and financed as easily as email. XRP hosts roughly $160 million in RWAs today, up 37% in a single month, and consultants at Boston Consulting Group think the pie could swell to $16 trillion before the decade is out. If XRP captures even a sliver of that capital flow, price appreciation should follow. Regulatory clouds have recently thinned dramatically for the chain as well. In March the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission settled its four‑year case against Ripple, trimming the penalty to $50 million from $125 million and closing the docket. That opened the door for the coin's relisting on major U.S. crypto exchanges. The U.S. government even earmarked XRP as one of the assets eligible for storage in its planned Digital Asset Stockpile, which will effectively sequester part of the coin's float (the coins available for public trading) if the stockpile is ever actually implemented. Put all of these pieces together and it's very possible for the coin to make a 10-fold move, which entails an achievable compound annual growth rate (CAGR) near 26%. It's reasonable to be optimistic that XRP will gain 10-fold during the next 10 years. But it's simply unrealistic to believe that it will gain enough to turn a $10,000 investment into $1 million. Turning $10,000 into $1 million implies a CAGR of about 58% every year for the next decade. Such trajectories are typically reserved for brand new markets or early‑stage start-ups, neither of which describes XRP or Ripple anymore. Macroeconomic cycles could also test holders' resolve. A 58% CAGR depends on consistently high global liquidity, while history shows tightening credit can halve crypto valuations in months. The odds are simply not good here. Pragmatically, XRP is best viewed as a coin with credible five‑ to 10-fold potential if Ripple executes its roadmap and the RWA boom materializes. Thus the best strategy to capture a big return is to dollar‑cost average into the coin over time to cushion against volatility. Hope alone will not bridge the math gap between $10,000 and $1 million, but building disciplined exposure might leave investors pleasantly surprised if the tailwinds and tech development keep playing out in XRP's favor. Before you buy stock in XRP, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and XRP wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $687,731!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $945,846!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 818% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 175% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 23, 2025 Alex Carchidi has positions in Ethereum. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Ethereum and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Could a $10,000 Investment in XRP (Ripple) Turn Into $1 Million by 2035? was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
