Informal trading is very popular at the border towns of developing countries, as occurs daily. However, activities of informal cross-border trade in Africa are not being recorded or documented by customs statistics and/or official trade records. This paper extends the work of a baseline study to evaluate the likely impact of private researchers’ involvement on the quality of border trade data collection in developing countries, with a specific focus on informal trade activities at Oja-Odan (a border town between Nigeria and the Benin Republic). The study randomly selected a sample of 217 owners and/or managers of micro and small-scale enterprises in the study area to collect data via a simple structured questionnaire. A more sophisticated analysis through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) with STATA 12.1 revealed that the collection of data on micro and small-scale informal cross-border trade by private researchers has a potential positive and significant implications for increasing the quality of international trade statistics in developing countries. The study concludes that involving private researchers in the collection and dissemination of informal trade data has significant and positive implications for the high quality of international merchandise trade statistics. The study recommends that the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the Economic Commission for Africa, the World Bank, national statistical offices and other agencies responsible for collecting, compiling, and disseminating data on international merchandise trade involving developing countries should involve private researchers in the process.