Rory - you paid 20,000CFA to get your bike in at Elubo - Noe border (the main road from Western Region)??? This is TOTALLY illegal, you should never have parted with that money, if you still have any copies of documents from that crossing I would love to have a scan. I'm currently chasing up the CI Custom's authorities about this and more evidence would be wonderful!!!

Ghana to Cote d’Ivoire
Crossing: Elubu to Ehania
Visa: €58 for 90 days from Accra – takes 24 hours
TIP: XOF20k (£27) at the border
Insurance: ECOWAS Brown Card
Carnet Needed: No

Notes: This is the main crossing between Ghana and CDI so plan for some time and a lot of bureaucracy.

On the Ghanaian side (maybe as a result of living in Ghana and owning Ghanaian bikes), the officials were uninterested.

On the Ivorian side the process was thorough. We had to go through the police, customs and immigration and all had multiple forms to complete, that required speaking to multiple people. However, everyone was friendly (not always helpful) and the process seemed legit. You will need to pay XOF20k for a TIP – we were not 100% sure it was OK but the price was on the form and we got a receipt. FYI – your bike may be searched and it will be a lot easier if you can speak French.

Roads in Ghana to the border are fine. In CDI the road is being rebuilt so we were on mud for 20(ish) miles. However, it shouldn’t take too long to finish building and then the road all the way to Abidjan will be paved.

Roads in CDI are good in the South and up to Yamoussoukro. However, in the West, they turn to mud/dirt. Checkpoints are more frequent in the trouble areas (North East and West). We were never asked for a bribe, just show your documents and you should be on your way.

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I love your zeal, C -- when we got gigged in Man by some Lt. Colonel for a whopping 60.000 XOF, he entered all of our information and amounts into a computer and generated us a printout receipt. Surely if your official was serious about corruption with TIPs, he need only peek into their database?

I'll see if I can scrounge up the paperwork to fuel your campaign. Kudos.

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RTW in Subaru: https://share.delorme.com/JoAndMike

I want a copy of yours too then!!!

Unbelievable! This was at the Nzo border or???

I'm going to get this stamped out, I've done a lot of things to help travellers coming CI, this is my current bugbear that I'll get sorted! Ask DaveTheHat about getting non-existent visas for a group in Bamako ...

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You're doing good work for all future travellers everywhere.

Funny story on this one actually -- we started at the Nzo border, but the kid there didn't know what a Carnet was, nor what else to do -- and called (after numerous attempts at not getting a cell signal) for instructions. Then he ordered us to follow him on his motorbike.

Keeping up with a motorcycle on THAT road is a chore in a Subaru. He was super impatient with us. We felt like Indiana Jones.

Next town up didn't know what to do with us either, so on to the next.

Repeat twice more over 2 hours, and we end up in Man. Good news: We planned to be in Man a day later, so we saved a lot of time. The border kid just sailed through what must have been a dozen cop checkpoints, and we just sheepishly shrugged and followed him through. We got tons of dirty looks, but the kid had a better uniform, so that's how it goes.

In Man's Douanes office, The Lt.Col gets summoned for us at 4pm and is not pleased when he rolls in 45 mins waiting later. He grudgingly writes us out the TIP for the 60.000 and explains that he's doing us a huge favor. Then he sails back off in his gov't issue Hilux.

I'll dig up the paper, it's still somewhere in the car. Will happily share. Hopefully it's worth something since he attended to it himself personally.

I hope you don't make too many waves. You're snatching money out of a lot of official mouths with this. You're my hero.

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You paid HOW much?!!!!!!!!! I'm now absolutely FUMING ... I will be taking this to the Anti-Corruption squad and a Director Regionale of customs to get this sorted. The whole situation is crazy and I am FED UP with customs trying to screw tourism out of Cote d'Ivoire ... Please do find your document and check to see if there are any names/numbers written on the other side of the paper you might want to scan to me too.

This HAS to stop!

The Police FB group got a real mixed reaction particularly when I told one of them (later found out he was a customs guy too) that there is NO fixed price for a TIP and that in law it's for free ... then went on to quote the different prices I know of! Other Ivorians were behind me with many saying that the Customs guys are the most corrupt bunch of govt. officials (I could tell you more but not publicly!!!) Your Lt Col was probably with his mistress for a siesta, then went to church on Sunday ... I'll say no more!!!

Yours is 10,000CFA more than any others, Niable, where I seem to remember you crossed into Ghana, east of Abengourou but you should have come to meet me; wanted 50,000CFA for it when I went to renew mine (their claims on $$$ last 2 minutes with me!)

When I get this sorted, I'll be asking all HUBB members coming through CI to buy me an evening drink

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Kira,

I don’t have a copy of the TIP. The agent at the border near Tabou (leaving CDI) took the TIP documents from us when we were negotiating our bribe with him to leave the country! He seemed very funny about making sure he got those documents (we were reluctant to give them to him initially) from us. I wish we hadn’t but in the end we thought we had no more use for them.

In Noe, we paid on the second floor of the large building I think contained the customs officials. It was a large green and yellow building with the front half acting as a yard used to search vehicles. We were shunted about between a number of different offices – as a number of officials wanted to sign the TIP document. We did initially think it was odd as we had recently spoken to someone who didn’t pay for a TIP. However, the form looked legit – and had a price on, we were given a receipt and because so many people had signed/reviewed the form (without asking for bribes) we decided to pay.

If you are going to take up problems with the authorities please bring up the Tabou crossing. The border agent clearly worked for the government (he had a uniform and worked out a government building) but was very aggressive and openly corrupt. Moreover, he was in league with the boat owners in the village, which made it even more difficult to cross without giving him something. Which is why we ended up paying CFA5k for each bike.

Thanks

Rory