The First Quarter 2026 Trade Report released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has revealed that Ghana sold more goods to other countries than it bought from them between January and March.

According to the report, Ghana recorded a trade surplus of GH¢46.1 billion between January and March this year, with total exports reaching GH¢110.3 billion, compared with imports worth GH¢64.2 billion.

The report stated that Ghana traded goods worth 174.6 billion Ghana cedis or 16.1 billion US dollars in just the first 3 months of 2026. This Government Statistician, Dr. Alhassan Iddrisu, says is the equivalent of almost 2 billion Ghana cedis worth of trade every single day.

Giving a breakdown, on Tuesday, September 1, Dr. Alhassan Iddrisu, he noted that, Gold remained Ghana’s biggest export during the period earning the country GH¢63.7 billion, or US$5.9 billion. He further revealed that cocoa exports also recorded an improvement during the same period.

“When we adjust for price effect using the unit value index, the picture changes from a nominal surplus to a real trade deficit, reminding us that higher prices rather than higher export volumes explain much of the strong trade performance.Much of the price gain in quarter one of 2026 came from gold,” he added.He advised that to sustain the achievement, the government should continue promoting export diversification, value addition, and regional trade under the AfCFTA.Ghana recorded a 169.7% export trade flow surge in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2025. The surge was attributed to a rise in prices of key exports such as gold, oil, and cocoa and high patronage by Asian countries positioning Ghana to export more than it mostly import.

Ghana made GH₵108.6 billion from exports but spent GH₵61.4 billion on imports between October and December 2025, marking a GH₵47.2 billion surplus, which is much higher than the GH₵17.5 billion surplus it had in the previous quarter.

“This represents a substantial increase from the GH₵17.5 billion surplus recorded in Q3 2025,” the GSS’ report said, highlighting the scale of the improvement in Ghana’s external trade balance.

In US dollar terms, Ghana’s total trade was valued at US$15.1 billion, with exports contributing US$9.7 billion, marking about 64% of Ghana’s total trade, highlighting the significance of export flows in the country’s economic performance.

The export boom was largely driven by commodity shipments, with gold bullion valued at GH₵72.7 billion, accounting for 66.9% of total exports.

“Gold bullion was the top export product worth more than seven times the value of the second-highest export,” the report noted, underscoring Ghana’s continued dependence on the precious metal.

Other significant products that contributed to the surge in trade surplus were cocoa beans and crude petroleum, though earnings from both commodities were not as much compared to gold, highlighting Ghana’s heavy dependence on just a few major exports, especially gold.

Most of Ghana’s exports went to Asia, which bought more than half (53.4%) of everything Ghana exported. This was more than twice what Europe bought, showing that Asia is Ghana’s biggest export destination.

India and the United Arab Emirates were the biggest individual buyers of Ghana’s exports. Together, these two countries alone bought almost half of all Ghana’s export earnings.

“Asia led with over half (53.4%) of total exports,” the report stated, highlighting the region’s dominance in Ghana’s trade network.

Even though Ghana’s export earnings looked strong on paper, this was mostly because prices of goods (like gold and oil) were high, not because the country was actually exporting much more in quantity.