The official currency of the Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire) is the CFA franc. The Ivory Coast currency consists of both coins and banknotes. A CFA is divided into 100 centimes. The coins come in the units of one, five, ten, 25, 50, 100, 200, 250 and 500. The banknotes have a value of 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000 CFA francs.
There has been a fixed exchange rate peg to the euro for several years. For one euro, depending on the exchange rate, you get around 655.957 CFA francs. The current daily value of the CFA – Franc BCEAO (Iso-Code: XOF) can be requested using the currency converter on the Internet or from banks.
In addition, the CFA (Communaute Financiere d`Afrique) is also the means of payment of all member countries of the West African Union. In addition to the Ivory Coast, countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Benin are members of this union.
The responsible body of the monetary union is the West African central bank BCEAO (Banque Centrale des Etats de l`Afrique de l`Quest). This can easily lead to confusion with the similar sounding CFA – Franc BEAC, which is not a valid currency of the Ivory Coast and the other West African Union members.
Exchange into Ivory Coast currency
Since the situation was similar to a civil war between 2002 and 2007, the banks on the Ivory Coast were closed. The banks have only recovered very slowly from this. To this day it is difficult to exchange money outside of the big cities.
The local currency can be imported without restrictions. Unlimited foreign currencies can also be imported, but this must be declared upon entry.
The export is limited to the imported money minus the changed money. It is therefore important to keep the exchange receipts. The export of the local currency is only permitted up to an amount of 10,000 CFA francs.
It is generally possible to exchange euros or US dollars at the airport, in the hotel and in banks. While there is no fee for exchanging cash, there is usually a fee for withdrawing cash by credit card. Since there are very few functioning ATMs, credit cards can usually only be used in large hotels.
However, it is advisable to change your money in the country, as the traveler receives more CFA francs for his money than at home.