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Change and money in general is a big hassle in Ivory Coast. Notes exist in (FCFA) 500, 1000, 2500, 5000 and 10,000 denominations (there may be larger denominations, but we never came across them). As for coins, it's 250, 100, 50, 25, 10, and 5. When you get money at the currency exchange, or bank, you will typically get only 10,000 notes, and possibly a few 5000.

Show Me The Money

Ajcairns
2005-11-04 20:45:22

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Change and money in general is a big hassle in Ivory Coast. Notes exist in (FCFA) 500, 1000, 2500, 5000 and 10,000 denominations (there may be larger denominations, but we never came across them). As for coins, it's 250, 100, 50, 25, 10, and 5. When you get money at the currency exchange, or bank, you will typically get only 10,000 notes, and possibly a few 5000.

The main problem is that whenever you want to buy something, the exact change (or as near as close to it as possible) is required. This occurs not only with taxis, people selling stuff on the street, and small shops (which I suppose you'd expect), but even in big hotels and restaurants. For example, if you want to buy a bunch of bananas for 100 FCFA, and you only have 500 FCFA, they won't be able to give you change (unless you buy say 3 or 4 bunches). Sometimes in taxis, the driver will let you off with 30 or 40 FCFA, because he doesn't have any change.

More annoyingly it can go the other way - for example in the hotel we stayed in, in Abidjan, we bought two cokes at the bar for 800 FCFA each, and they couldn't give us the 400 FCFA change from 2000 FCFA, only grudgingly giving us an IOU which we could come back and use later. The worst thing though, is not being able to buy stuff on the street, or when people come up to the baca selling food, etc. because you don't have any coins. Basically it's an unavoidable and exasperating part of the money problems which are 'monnaie courante' in Ivory Coast.

The worst money problem though, which did really screw up our trip quite a bit, was the fact that Visa cards (or Carte Bleue as they are called in France) are accepted practically nowhere, apart from the big hotels in Abidjan. Also, there are no cash distributors where you can use them, even in Abidjan. Contrary to what the guidebooks, banks, etc may tell you, you cannot use them to get cash over the counter in any bank - only 2 or 3 large central ...