Rwanda: Measuring Informal cross border trade between Rwanda and her neighboring countries

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Rwanda treats shuttle trade together with other informal trade; there is no specific survey targeting shuttle trade alone.
Informal Cross Border Trade (ICBT) is defined as imports and exports of legitimately produced goods and services that directly or indirectly escape the regulatory framework set by the government, avoid taxes and regulatory measures, and go unrecorded in official national statistics.
The Government of Rwanda initiated an ICBT survey in 2009 to supplement statistics collected by the Customs Authorities and reduce the statistics gap.
The ICBT Survey started in May 2009 on a pilot basis covering a few crossing points and was expanded; the government decided to carry the survey on a monthly basis since January 2012 up to today.
ICBT data are grossed up with formal trade data in the compilation of the Balance of Payments (BOP), International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS) and System of National Accounts (SNA) for external sector analysis.

The survey is carried out by the National Bank of Rwanda in partnership with:
- National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR)
- Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA)
- Ministry of Agriculture and Animals Resources (MINAGRI)
- Ministry of Trade and Industry (MINICOM)

Methodology: census approach adopted since 2009.
Field operations:
- Recruit and train enumerators on Census and Survey Processing System (CSPro) - Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) questionnaire.
- ICBT data are collected and transmitted to the bank server in real-time.
- Data received on central bank server are edited, processed, used and disseminated.
Coverage:
- 17 official borders (borders with migration officers).
- 39 major crossing points (borders with no presence of migration officers).
- Borders have between 2 to 6 enumerators/field staff per border post depending of the size of ICBT.
- Enumerators work every day of the week.

Collection follows the General Trade System of compiling International Merchandise Trade Statistics, recording all goods leaving or entering the country as they cross customs frontiers.
Techniques account for prevailing border site conditions, packaging of informally traded products, and general behaviors of ICBT traders.
Enumerators are positioned to see and talk to traders crossing the border; for buses/shuttles, enumerators stand at loading/off-loading areas to interact with passengers.

The CAPI system uses a data transfer protocol allowing real-time data transmission from field to the bank’s server.
The digital form includes consistency checks and validation rules to minimize data collection errors.
Back-end editing trims outliers based on product average prices.

At the end of the month, ICBT data are extracted from the Business Intelligence (BI) system and used in compilation of BOP, SNA and IMTS.
Before integration with official trade data, ICBT data are harmonized using HS codes.
ICBT data are available for BOP, SNA and IMTS at the end of every month.

Enumerators collect trade information directly from traders crossing the borders between Rwanda and neighboring countries, conducted tactfully to avoid imposing non-tariff barriers on traders.

Since adoption of the ICBT survey, Rwanda trade statistics have improved.
On average:
- Informal exports contribute about 12% of total exports.
- Informal imports contribute around 3% of total imports.