Spending in central and west africa

dont_use_vistaprint

Can anyone recommend a better way of funding central and west africa travel, other than carrying quantities of $100 and 100 Euro notes.

I need cash on a daily basis, often in small denominations for around 3-4 weeks every 8 weeks. Around £6000 per trip

Official rates for Naira are very poor , so cash is needed for the black market exchanges. Small denominations get poorer rates. West african francs are pegged by the gov to Euro in some countries, so slightly better, but again hotels provide much better than banks but for high denominations only. AMEX is not accepted. VISA is accepted but uses the official rate nothing like the blackmarket rate and limits transactions to 10,000 Naira at a time, charging around £5 in fees per transaction.

Thanks

richardw

So that is about 6.5 trips per year, so £40 000 per year, perhaps consult a currency specialist.

Voyager2002

I think you have answered your own question...

When I worked in West Africa my employer often needed to finance operations on other countries. We did this by asking staff to carry cash with them: at the time I left management were considering a move to travellers' cheques!

West African francs (CFA) have an official rate that is as good as the black market rate, so a good travel card would be cost-effective, except that any given ATM will only work about half the time.

The only question is whether it is worth exchanging your cash to dollars before you travel, or simply carry lots of cash in pounds sterling.