West Africa Investment Monitor Three West African markets: similar trade ratios can conceal different import exposure IDER Research Desk | 2026-09-12 Reference period: 2023 A comparison of Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal shows why trade openness should be read with the trade balance. Reconstructing export and import shares from these two indicators reveals a much larger import component in Senegal’s 2023 ratio. Derived imports were approximately 48.3% of GDP in Senegal, 32.6% in Ghana and 27.8% in Côte d’Ivoire in 2023. Current-data companion — 19 September 2026 Updated WDI annual trade observations extend to 2025 where reported; Ghana and Nigeria have no 2025 trade value. These national-accounts ratios do not replace the 2023 merchandise composition in this archived article. Compare economies only within the same indicator, year and vintage. https://iderafrica.com/insights/ghana-current-data-business-decisions-september-2026 Two indicators reveal the composition Trade openness adds exports and imports; the trade balance subtracts imports from exports. Combining them gives an approximate split. Senegal’s openness of 71.39% and balance of −25.18% imply exports of 23.11% and imports of 48.29% of GDP. Ghana’s corresponding components are 31.77% and 32.62%; Côte d’Ivoire’s are 24.25% and 27.75%. These are national-accounts goods-and-services shares. They are not customs merchandise totals or measures of bilateral trade between the three countries. The investment reading Our interpretation is that a regional market screen should distinguish the scale of cross-border activity from its composition. A high trade ratio does not itself indicate strong export earnings. Equally, an import-heavy profile does not prove an attractive substitution opportunity. Imports may include goods that require unavailable inputs, specialised technology or substantial scale to produce locally. The observed difference creates a research question about product demand and domestic supply; it does not answer a project’s feasibility or return requirements. A disciplined comparison for market entry An investor comparing these markets should build separate evidence for import-dependent inputs and customer demand. Start with the specific product category, identify its buyers, and test landed costs against local alternatives. Then examine payment terms and the currencies of revenue and procurement. For a services project, confirm whether the apparent trade exposure is relevant to the service sold. Country-level ratios can guide which questions receive attention first, while a common commercial model makes the resulting findings comparable across markets. Method Using percentages of GDP, exports = (trade openness + trade balance) / 2 and imports = (trade openness − trade balance) / 2. All inputs come from 2023 WDI observations in the same WITS extract. Derived shares retain arithmetic precision and are displayed to one or two decimals. The comparison covers these three selected economies only; it is not a West African regional aggregate. Limitations The split is reconstructed from rounded indicators and is not an independently retrieved export/import series. A trade deficit is not a current-account deficit, a fiscal deficit or a financing-risk score. Nigeria is excluded because the supplied WITS extract lacks its trade and balance observations. The brief makes no current investment ranking and no forecast. Sources WITS country profile — GHA, 2023: WDI development indicators The World Bank: World Development Indicators, accessed through WITS https://wits.worldbank.org/CountryProfile/en/Country/GHA/Year/2023/Summarytext WITS country profile — CIV, 2023: WDI development indicators The World Bank: World Development Indicators, accessed through WITS https://wits.worldbank.org/CountryProfile/en/Country/CIV/Year/2023/Summarytext WITS country profile — SEN, 2023: WDI development indicators The World Bank: World Development Indicators, accessed through WITS https://wits.worldbank.org/CountryProfile/en/Country/SEN/Year/2023/Summarytext WDI metadata — Trade (% of GDP), NE.TRD.GNFS.ZS World Bank https://databank.worldbank.org/metadataglossary/world-development-indicators/series/NE.TRD.GNFS.ZS WDI metadata — Exports of goods and services (% of GDP) World Bank https://databank.worldbank.org/metadataglossary/world-development-indicators/series/NE.EXP.GNFS.ZS World Bank — Summary Terms of Use World Bank https://data.worldbank.org/summary-terms-of-use Original editorial desk analysis prepared with AI assistance. No named human signoff or peer review is asserted.