West Africa border taxes/charges real or not

[stevo52]

Can somebody tell me if all of the taxes/charges I'm paying at borders are official or not.

So far I paid ten euro to get vehicle import papers entering Mauritania from Morocco and at the Diama border of Mauritania/Senegal I paid ten euro to police and another ten to customs before paying another two tens (or maybe ten and five) for the same caper on the Senegal side as well as 500 cfa more for something else .

I tried my best to get out of these but had the impression that there was no budging.

Does anybody know if these are correct payments, and more to the point, can I expect this as standard at West African borders (as in legitimate payments as opposed to chancers trying their luck)?

[vdoo]

Hi,

Consider yourself lucky if you only paid 10 € at the Morocco-Mauritania border. 50-100 € is not unusual.

But don’t worry, the north and south border of Mauritania are notorious haunts for scammers. Most other border crossings are just fine, although you will bump into the occasional opportunist that will hold on to your passport for an unusually long time, flipping through the pages back and forth. In those cases demand an official receipt and wait until they get bored.

Normally, the only payable fee at a border crossing is for the Temporary Import Permit which in West Africa is typically 5000 CFA (8-10 €). This is a legitimate fee. The number of days/weeks/month that you get for that sum vary a lot.

You should never pay for getting your passport stamped.

Check this out for further information:

Beyond Borders

Enjoy the trip.

[Dave The Hat]

As Vdoo says, you do not need to pay ANYTHING at any of the borders in West Africa (unless you need a laissez passez of course).

Even at Diama you shouldn't have to pay any fees except the toll to cross the dam/bridge (even then I am not sure if it is an 'official' fee). However, the corrupt officials are so used to getting money that unless you are prepared to wait all day you will not get through without paying something.

[Tim Cullis]

Didn't pay. But you need patience.

[stevo52]

Ok. Thanks. Great info. I'm very much of the philosophy that once I'm in Africa I'm on Africa time. I'm prepared to spend a full day if that's what I have to do. I just don't want to wait a full day and still have to pay, or worse still, not pay and antagonise a genuine official who could then start looking for things like yellow fever certificates which I don't have, or searching my bike and looking for me to pay legitimate import tax on things like my Cohiba cigars (which ironically are for bribing sticky consul official)

With this info in mind, I'll keep with the plan to go via Gambia and Guinea Bissau.

Thanks a lot for the help

[Dave The Hat]

Steve you should get a yellow fever certificate if you're venturing further into West Africa. I don't know your route but we do sometimes get asked to produce it. Ivory Coast and Ghana are quite prone to wanting to see your certificate. By no means all of the time just sometimes.

[stevo52]

Thanks Dave. I've just put up another thread on this if you can have a look http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...799#post511033

[kingkoru]

No need to pay anything. Only if there is a official looking receipt. I just wrote about that crossing yesterday: https://www.facebook.com/wheelieadve...06211732941890 don't pay! One way to make things go faster is to show no fear, respect for sure... But never fear.


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