selling bike in mali?
 

We are considering a trip down to West Africa next December. Since we only have 4 weeks, we were considering just getting rid of our bikes perhaps in Mali. Bamako I presume or perhaps Gao or Timbuktu.

Does anybody know how hard/easy it would be to sell the bikes in Mali? Are the bike details inserted into the passport? We will be travelling without a carnet de passage..

Cheers,
Rejean

Vehicle details are not entered in your passport.

Great. Has anyone ever sold a bike in Mali? Would it be relatively straightforward to sell the bike in Bamako, for example?

Anybody with experience selling a bike anywhere in West Africa?

Well , I sold a car in Bamako, 4 months ago.

As usual in WAfrica , everyone plays the comission game. In the center of Bamako , just stop the car /bike forawhile , and you will be approached by lots of people who knows "someone" which actually buys cars/bikes.

Its relatively easy to sell a car , and to my surprise , there were no paperwork involved. Just get the money , and handle th e cart gris. That is. AS vehicle details are still not written in the Passport , you are free to leave the country ad lib.

I dont know specifically about motorbikes , but It should be quite the same.


This man (which is the Manager of "Auberge Lafia" in Bamako , also is in the car dealing business, can and will inform you before hand about all you wanna know regarding selling vehicles in Mali. He speaks something beetween English and French.

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Bocoum Bocari
00223 223 83 09 /636 68 94
bocoume@yahoo.fr
Rue 367 , Porte 52 , Bamako Coura Mali.
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Good Luck
Javier

Javier, thanks for the response. I imagine that the market is not too great for cars/bikes sales in Mali? Did you get near the value of the car in the sale (compared to Spain)?

cheers,
Rejean

There is a market for big bikes in Bamako although the prices have dropped slightly in the last year because of the border restrictions in Senegal. The whole thing is not completly free of hassle. Officially you are not allowed to PROPOSE the bike for sale - it says so on the laissez paisser. There are a few scams and be careful of customs in civilian clothes.

They are mostly looking for XT´s or Honda Dominators or Transalps. I have sold a few road bikes in mali but I was living there at the time and the customs were already paid on them.

If we were to pay the customs, do you have a rough figure how much the duty would be for a 1989 Yamaha Tenere? I guess it depends how much I sell it for?

Cheers,
Rejean

No . The you dont have to pay any customs / import tax. In any case , It won't be more than 100.000 CFAs (130 euros) for a Suzuki Jeep . (I guess for your motorbike should be approximately the same) . But I insist that is the buyer the one which must pay (much later on ) taxes , when he wish to re-gister the bike on malian plates.

Good Luck .