sending cash to west africa
 

Hi,

Does anyone have experinece in sending money to West Africa using Western Union?

I guess they should be pretty reliable/swift in Europe, but what about in West Africa?


Thanks,
José

Not to West Africa but to Sudan and Ethiopia where it worked very effectively and efficiently. You need to find where there is a genuine Western Union office - loads of places display big signs outside but blatently aren't, they have no electronics such as computers or even telephones to be able to process the transactions. The signs seem to be put up to show that they can exchange currency, not actually do western union transfers. There should be proper offices in the capitals.

Western Union are everywhere in West Africa. Ive used them to send cash in both directions. Fast, reliable but not very cheap.

A couple of other thoughts: You can also only receive local currency (you cant get them to send EUR or USD) and you need someone back home to initiate the transfer.

Pretty efficient system though.

Thanks for all the tips!


Thanks,
José

In Ghana u will have access to both Barclays and Standard Chartered, so might be worth your while setting up an account and checking how easily you can access your when you arrive. Also, drawing money on a credit card is not a problem, though not sure how high the transaction costs are.

I transferred money through Western Union to Sierra Leone and Gambia several times without problems. It is quick and reliable but not really cheap. Western Union offices are not hard to find as it is very common to transfer money this way.
Rainer

[This message has been edited by rainerr100gs (edited 15 June 2004).]

just used it last week to Senegal. They took a 10% commission but the money was picked up in 2 hours. It is by far more popular than bank transfers.

I'm expecting to receive approximately $19m from Dr. Usman Bello who asked me to cash one of his cheques on behalf of an exiled Diplomat. He promised to use Western Union - am I likely to see this cash??

Talking Cool

............................ You too :)

WU in Accra, Ghana
 

I used WU in Accra, Ghana last December. I hanged the phone after my...er...mum confirmed the transfer, took a taxi to WU's office and there it was. Only issue was that the deposit was made in Us dollars and the transfer was paid in local currency. Not too much of a problem, but apart from losing some due to transfer charges I lost some more when changing local currency back to USD before heading on to the next country.

cheers. pium.