More men trade informally than women

Data from the Namibia Statistics Agency shows that men traded goods to the value of N$6 million, while women made up N$4.3 million of informal trade.

This was during November 2023.

According to the NSA’s Informal Cross Border Trade Survey (ICBTS) released last week, the value of goods traded by men accounted for 62.1%, while good traded by women accounted for 37.9% of the total informal exports during the period under review.

The total value of informal trade was N$10.3 million, noted the survey.

The trade survey also showed that the Oshikango border post recorded N$4.4 million in informal trade during November last year.

This is a decline from N$19.4 million recorded in September 2019 – the last time a survey was undertaken.

“Exports made up the largest share of total trade at N$9.1 million, compared to imports which accounted for a relatively low share of N$1.2 million, subsequently Namibia recorded a favourable informal trade balance amounting to N$7.9 million,” noted the ICBTS.

Normally, Namibia always records a trade deficit due to importing more than it exports.

The survey covered four border posts – Oshikango, Katima Mulilo, Omahenene and Sarasungu.

“Among the four border posts which were surveyed, the Oshikango border post had the highest share of 46.7% in total trade, followed by Katima Mulilo with a share of 28.1%,” noted the survey.

The ICBTS is an economic survey of small, unrecorded trade between countries.

It covers merchandise trade transactions between residents and non-residents across the economic boundaries of two or more countries that are not recorded by the customs authorities as their values are below the threshold required by customs, statistician general Alex Shimuafeni noted in the survey.