plate 209 · 2025 data

Burkina Faso now sends half its exports to the UAE

Share of goods exports sold to the UAE, 2021 vs 2025, Africa's seven biggest reported gold exporters.

Africa's century
  1. 1. By 2100, more than 1 in 3 people will be African
  2. 2. Nearly half the world's under-25s will be African by 2100
  3. 3. DR Congo is projected to outgrow the US by 2100
  4. 4. Kinshasa will soon be bigger than Paris and London combined
  5. 5. Two-thirds of the world's mobile money moves in Africa
  6. 6. Volcanic heat makes nearly 45% of the power Kenya generates
  7. 7. Africa's solar imports more than doubled since early 2024
  8. 8. DR Congo mines three-quarters of the world's cobalt
  9. 9. Nearly two in three people in Africa are still offline
  10. 10. Africa formally recycles less than 1% of its e-waste
  11. 11. Ethiopia added over a third of Africa's new renewable power
  12. 12. Nigeria's cities now hold more people than Japan's
  13. 13. Sudan now has the world's most people displaced at home
  14. 14. Nigeria now has almost 25 million more people than Brazil
  15. 15. Six of the ten fastest-growing big cities are African
  16. 16. Africa now has more hungry people than Asia
  17. 17. Six in ten child deaths now happen in sub-Saharan Africa
  18. 18. Rwanda spread electricity faster than any country since 2014
  19. 19. Nigeria now eats more rice than Japan
  20. 20. More sub-Saharan Africans now have mobile money than bank accounts
  21. 21. Sub-Saharan Africa's cities now hold more people than Latin America's
  22. 22. DR Congo tripled its copper mining in ten years
  23. 23. Nitrogen dioxide over Khartoum fell 39% after war began
  24. 24. Countries mostly without electricity fell from 33 to 15
  25. 25. Seven in ten West African mobile money accounts sit idle
  26. 26. Nigeria became the third-biggest sender of students abroad
  27. 27. Guinea overtook Australia as the world's biggest bauxite miner
  28. 28. DR Congo passed Chile in refined copper
  29. 29. Burkina Faso now sends half its exports to the UAE
52%

Share of Burkina Faso's goods exports that went to the UAE in 2025, up from 0.3% in 2021.

5 of 7

Of Africa's seven biggest gold exporters with known buyers made the UAE their top buyer in 2025. Switzerland led Burkina Faso and Ghana in 2021.

$30.5bn

Gold these seven sent to the UAE in 2025, twice the $15.0bn they sent to Switzerland.

Source: UN Comtrade, annual goods exports by partner, as reported by each exporter (HS), 2025
the numbers & method
Burkina Faso now sends half its exports to the UAE. Source: UN Comtrade, annual goods exports by partner, as reported by each exporter (HS), 2025.
2021 (%)2025 (%)
Burkina Faso0.352.2
Zimbabwe28.648.7
Uganda26.840.5
Ghana0.825.9
Egypt4.013.7
Tanzania16.513.1
Côte d'Ivoire0.70.2

Claim types Fact

UN Comtrade, final annual data, classification HS, flow = export, reporter-reported, all partners, customs code C00, mode of transport 0 (all). Read from the Comtrade public preview API (comtradeapi.un.org/public/v1/preview/C/A/HS, cmdCode TOTAL and 7108). Total goods exports to World / to UAE (784), US$: Burkina Faso (854) 2021 5,060,027,958.95 / 13,160,369.03; 2025 11,070,650,646.80 / 5,780,022,968.86. Ghana (288) 2021 14,824,104,394.97 / 117,988,836.05; 2025 31,975,161,923.11 / 8,283,613,112.87. Egypt (818) 2021 43,636,851,989.26 / 1,759,191,673.60; 2025 51,391,290,394.80 / 7,030,540,628.60. Uganda (800) 2021 3,965,317,044.55 / 1,062,909,993.81; 2025 12,801,808,167.75 / 5,179,055,488.20. Zimbabwe (716) 2021 6,036,188,240.04 / 1,725,322,537.22; 2025 9,706,268,303.63 / 4,731,597,955.92. Tanzania (834) 2021 6,390,862,886.74 / 1,051,734,178.94; 2025 10,080,852,456.60 / 1,323,824,643.40. Exports to Switzerland (757): Burkina Faso 2021 3,678,548,898.12 (top partner, 72.7%), 2025 4,253,314,682.85 (38.4%); Ghana 2021 2,411,585,739.73 (top partner, 16.3%), 2025 4,526,685,153.44 (14.2%, behind the UAE and India 5,121,239,610.27). In 2025 the UAE is the top partner of Burkina Faso, Ghana, Egypt, Uganda and Zimbabwe; Tanzania's top partner is South Africa (2,908,260,125.65) and its UAE share fell. Gold (HS 7108) exports to the UAE, 2025, US$: Burkina Faso 5,733,600,729.80; Ghana 8,232,910,492.33; Zimbabwe 4,496,956,864.60; Uganda 5,083,347,961.12; Egypt 5,855,457,793.68; Tanzania 1,143,588,126.34 (six-country sum 30.55bn). HS 7108 to Switzerland, 2025: Burkina Faso 4,197,006,690.30; Ghana 4,519,763,389.92; Egypt 1,720,553,938.45; Tanzania 350,675,502.04; Zimbabwe and Uganda report no HS 7108 row to Switzerland (six-country sum 10.79bn). Côte d'Ivoire (384): total goods exports 2021 15,356,712,092.29 / to UAE 101,292,978.67; 2025 29,432,666,115.65 / 56,861,195.28; HS 7108 2025 total 4,696,907,908.00, to Switzerland 4,260,061,336.75, to UAE 2,170,857.16; top partner Switzerland (4.27bn, ahead of the Netherlands 3.71bn, from named partners). Selection: the seven biggest African HS 7108 exporters in 2025 whose reports name destinations (Ghana, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Uganda, Tanzania, Côte d'Ivoire, Zimbabwe). South Africa (HS 7108 exports US$9,641,884,049.63 in 2025) reports 9,633,619,780.25 to 'areas not elsewhere specified', so its buyers are unknown and it is left out. Seven-country sums: HS 7108 to UAE 30.55bn, to Switzerland 15.05bn (2.03×). Ghana's 2021 top-partner check covered named partners, not the full list. Gold was 99.2% of Burkina Faso's and 99.4% of Ghana's 2025 exports to the UAE. All shares, sums and ratios are progrss calculations. Mali (466), a large gold exporter, has no 2025 report in Comtrade and is left out; Sudan has no 2021 or 2025 report. Values are as reported by the exporting country (partner data from the UAE side may differ); goods rising in price raise shares too, and the plate names no cause. Licence: UN Comtrade data are for non-commercial use, so this plate is not licensable.

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