unforeseen expenses in Africa...........
 

howdy,

looking for a couple answers
(1) is insurance mandatory in most african countries? What's the deal with country-to-country insurance...can we purchase at borders? do we REALLY need it?
(2) visas-which ones are ridiculously expensive?

any other expenses in Africa which require attention? budget's tight, don't want to many wallet-eating surprises!

cheers,
T&T
Motos Against Malaria

ECOWAS Brown Card
 

Hi,
Was in Western Africa in 2002.
My travelling companion (living in Nigeria at the time) sorted out insurance cover for the countries in the ECOWAS. It cost about €100.

I can't remember if it was mandatory, but I did present it at all the border crossings. I guess I can't speculate on what might have happened at the borders had I not had it.

Morocco/Western Sahara wasn't covered by ECOWAS, so we when we arrived at the border with Mauritania (on 'The Spanish Road') we had to give an undertaking to the border officials to purchase insurance at our first opportunity, which we did in Dakhla. Can't remember how much it cost.

Sorry for the vague answer; hope it helps a little.

Regards,
Ken.

Ecowas
 

thanks ken...does such an organization exist for southern/eastern africa?

cheers,

For southern africa, no insurance needed (SA, Lesotho, Swazi, Bots, Namibia).
For Canadians Moz needs visa at the border ($50?) and insurance ($30/month)
Zambia, Malawi, Tanz, Kenya, Ethipoa, Djibouti, and some other eastern africa countries use the COMESA system, or yellow card. Do search for that here...its not too expensive. Zambia police asked for it, as did Kenya. Nobody else. You need to buy third party for whichever coutry you enter first, and with that same company the COMESA Yellow card is a rider used for the rest of the countries.
Pricing is determined on how many countries you are going to: there is a price for one counrty, 2, or 3+. THen you decide how many months you want coverage for.

Can send more info in a few days.
Cheers,
Rene

Hi T and T
 

Insurance: we travelled through west Africa with no previously organised insurance. We arranged most of it either at borders or in the country for following places. Like Rene said, it's all depends on which countries you go to and how long you want the cover for. we got what you called a Brown card and a yellow/orange card that covered most countries in The Gambia and it was quite cheap... ( sorry can't remember the exact amount)

Visa also depends on price depending where you get them, ( we got our Mali Visas in Guinea for about 2 Euros each, whilst others got there's for about 30 Euros in Senegal. But our most expensive visa was Sierra Leone... 100 US dollars ( actually 110 US each as they wouldn't take small denominations!!!) Others are usually around 30-40 Euros for visa.

Where are you guys now??? Happy travels
Always Amy

insurance
 

Hi,

I have a list on my site what countries require insurance and which are in a common market area. The avarage insurance prices for a 4x4 was about Euro 25 to 40 per months! A motorbike would be less I think. Having an insurance is a good way of getting the police of your back. Without an insurance you will expose yourself to blackmail situations.

exploreafrica.web-log.nl: 31-handy (check) lists


cheers,

Noel
exploreafrica.web-log.nl

I bought the " Yellow card insurance " which covers almost everywhere.
some borders are funny and less than straight and may have a " deal " with the guys selling insurance but its not sucha big deal, try the yellow card

comesa for east Africa
 

If you take out insurance in an east or southern African country you can have it extended with a yellow card or comesa in that country to cover most others. I took mine out in Zambia where the basic insurance was about 30 dollars for 3 months and another 30 for the comesa, this has covered me right up to and including Sudan, it is not valid in Egypt. You will be asked if you have it at some borders and the comesa is fine, as for its value as insurance is anybodies guess.
Mark

Ehm... no more info? ;)
It would be interesting... Thank you in advance!