The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to facilitate data collection on Nigeria’s informal trade volume and value across international borders.
The Executive Director of NEPC, Dr. Nonye Ayeni, said the pact representing a turning point in Nigeria’s efforts to boost its exports earnings through the capturing of data in the informal sector.
According to her, the existing trade data primarily capture activities within the formal sector, offering limited visibility into informal export trade transactions, despite their significant volume and economic impact. In 2024, formal export trade records indicate that 7.291 million metric tons of non-oil products valued at $5.456 billion were exported from Nigeria.
Nonye, who disclosed that these figures exclude informal export trade data, pointed out that informal cross-border trade was not just a distant peripheral activity but real trade that supports livelihoods, strengthens regional supply chains and contributes significantly to national and continental economic resilience and growth.
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She clarified: “Informal export in millions of dollars in goods and services has remained largely outside our official records. Informal export trade data collected by the NEPC state offices at major corridors in Kano, Jigawa, Kebbi, Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Lagos, Ogun, and Adamawa reveal transactions valued at over $31.8 million in some months of 2024.”
She explained that reports from the National Onion Producers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria (NOPPMAN) indicated that over 1.6 million bags of commodity were traded informally to neighbouring countries such as Ghana, Cote D Ivoire, Benin, Cameroon, Congo and Niger Republic
The NEPC boss lamented that the remarkable achievements were not captured in the national export trade statistics with the attendant negative implications for economic planning for the country.
While noting that the ugly development has been vitiating Nigeria’s voice in regional and global trade negotiations and denies the informal traders the support they needed to grow, Ayeni maintained the collaboration between the Council and the NBS was informed by the desire to correct the imbalance and capture the full spectrum of Nigeria’s export trade.
Speaking on the pact, the Statistician-General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer of the statistics agency, Prince Adeyemi Adeniran, said the meeting of key players from national and sub-national agencies, regional institutions, international development partners and the organised private sector (OPS), reflected the strong spirit of collaboration critical to addressing one of the challenges in Nigeria’s trade data architecture, that is, capturing and integrating data from informal trade and trade in services into the national framework.
Adeniran, who explained that the data gap had severely impeded evidence-based policymaking, limited the Federal Government’s capacity to engage in fair trade negotiations, and undermined the accuracy of our macroeconomic indicators, added that traditional trade measurement systems had long focused on formal, large-scale transactions while overlooking the vibrancy of informal trade routes.
The Statistician-General of the Federation stressed that the anomaly must be corrected if Nigeria is to be position to align her economic statistics with reality.
Adeniran disclosed that informal trade in Sub-Saharan Africa contributed between 20% and 40% of intra-African trade, with Nigeria accounting for a significant share due to the nation’s long and porous borders.
He said: “These are not just gaps in data; rather, they represent gaps in our understanding of economic life and the well-being of millions of Nigerians who engage in these activities daily.”
The NBS’ chief described the statistics agency’s collaboration with NEPC as providing a timely opportunity to update and harness current trends, identify new opportunities, and design data-informed strategies to support trade formalisation, enhance competitiveness, and ultimately foster inclusive economic growth.
This is even as he noted that the partnership represented a strategic intervention that would enhance institutional capacities, promote regulatory coherence, and position Nigeria as a regional leader in trade statistics.
Adeniran further projected: “Capturing informal trade data will also help us design smarter border policies, enhance food security, facilitate small and medium enterprise development, and monitor regional integration efforts.”
