Taking money into Africa

The easiest option would be to bring an ATM card, preferably on the Visa network though Mastercard will do. You won't have any problems finding and accessing ATMs in Namibia and South Africa. I had no problems when I was in Uganda either, but I didn't go off the beaten path. I've never used a prepaid debit card so I don't know if availability is the same. The downside of using ATMs is that you'll probably have to pay some sort of commission to your home bank as well as possibly to the owner of the network that you're withdrawing from.

I've never used travellers' cheques but they don't get the same rates as cash (though they're obviously safer) and the time you have to spend on queuing/admin to cash them might grate after a while.

Have a look at this thread for info re Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania.

I know this isn't addressing the exact question you asked, but hopefully this might be useful - I travelled through these countries last year so the info is fairly current. My personal recommendation would be to take an ATM card (prepaid or not, depending on if you can find out if the ATM availability's the same) and a couple of hundred USD as a backup. Reply to this

Thanks alot for your recommendations both of you it has been extremely helpful. Ethiopia tomorrow... Can't wait! Reply to this

We have just completed a trip through all of those countries. We used an ATM card for much of the time. Visa was the most widely used. There ATMs in most of the major towns in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya etc. We also took US dollars. Nice new ones but it is best to make sure they are post 2003. They are the easiest to change and you tend to get a better exchange rate with them. Traveller's cheques were a nuisance. Reply to this

Hope you're having a great trip Daniel? For anyone else interested in the money topic, I just got back from East Africa and had a 2004 USD note rejected as too old so if you have the choice I'd recommend bringing/exchanging for notes issued from 2006 onwards to save any hassle. Definitely anything earlier than 2003 will likely be rejected or get a worse rate.
ATM Visa worked most places, sometimes had to try a couple of machines in same town to get one that worked.
Took travellers cheques but never needed to cash them and seemed like it would have been much more hassle than using ATM. Reply to this

Hi Eric

I'd definitely take as much as you feel comfortable carrying with you as hard currency goes a long way in Africa and will save the hassle and bad exchange rates of getting it there. I took $1000 with me on my last trip, I was petrified at first carrying that much money but it was fine, just hide it in lots of different places!
It's not that hard to get US$ out there though, just you'll lose out on exchange rates because you have to go from your home currency to local currency to US$ and it'll take a bit of time to sort out.
Barclays banks are good and can be found in most big towns. Over the counter they will let you take out US$ (although will still charge you to change to shillings first then dollars), you need your passport for this. Otherwise withdraw shillings from ATM and then exchange to dollars at Forex.
You can ask to pay accommodation etc in local currency no problems, it's visas, some big tours and changing currency at borders where the hard currency is essential. I definitely didn't need as much dollars as I thought when I was there and ended up taking shillings from ATM to pay for most of my trip.

Hope this helps, have a great trip! Reply to this

The best currencies to bring on your trip to Africa are the US Dollar and the European Euro. You can bring these currencies in cash or traveler cheques. Reply to this