Equatorial Guinea trains survey agents to count informal border trade
Teams will collect data at land crossings with Cameroon and Gabon, where much trade is missing from customs records.
The National Statistics Institute (INEGE) has begun training field agents to measure informal cross-border trade in Equatorial Guinea. Much of this trade does not appear in the customs administration's records. The survey is part of a project running at the same time in all six members of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), funded by the World Bank and coordinated by the CEMAC Commission.
Ricardo Nsue Ndemesogo Obono, INEGE's director general, presented the project's objectives at the event and said reliable, complete data is needed to understand the country's foreign trade. INEGE leads the work with the Customs Directorate and the Directorate General of Foreign Trade. The training covers methods for fieldwork, identifying trade movements and ensuring data quality.
Once training ends, the teams will travel to the border posts to begin collecting information. Surveys will focus on the land borders with Cameroon and Gabon, especially at Ebibeyin, Micomiseng, Río Campo and Kogo. The government says the data will help it judge how large informal trade is in the national economy.
Why it mattersTraders and officials at Ebibeyin, Micomiseng, Río Campo and Kogo will be counted for the first time in national trade statistics.