Border Cote D'Ivoire / Ghana | Customs and Immigration

Côte d'Ivoire

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7 days ago
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206.0 masl
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eljarman89

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Open from 6.30am to 6.30pm in august.

Busy border. March 2024 => Both sides for 2 people with Visa on arrival only 75 Min.

At the Ghanaian side. we were greeted at the entrance with the news our car (righthand drive) would need to be escorted as it was illegal. Managed to get carnet stamped and this was not taken any further.

Had a transit visa. Managed to get an emergency visa at the border on the spot for 150 dollars. ouch.

Avoid if you don’t have a Carnet!!

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Ivory Ciast to Ghana:
Easy border on both sides, have CPD stamped withour any problems.
Visa on arrival in 15 Min. done. no problems (150 US $ or 100.000CFA). We paid in CFA, everything friendly and with helpful people.

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Ivory Coast -> Ghana

First building to your right is customs. They put the data of your CdP in the computer but don’t stamp.
Next step is immigration to get exit stamp (slightly behind customs).
You then park your vehicle after the big building that looks like a huge bus station. Walk into the hall to the end, go upstairs, take third door on the left to stamp Carnet.
Ready to go to Ghana.
First step on Ghana side is to get a white paperslip with your vehicle data in the green container on the right corner. They need your CdP and driving licence.
Drive downhill, left building is immigration. First get yourself and your vehicle listed in a book, then go to the left side of the house to fill out the immigration form (outside) and get passport stamped (inside).
Then walk to the opposite side of the house for customs. They need the CdP and the white paperslip you got in the green container.
Done! When exiting the border area, hand out the white to the officer, give him time to check and off you go!

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Simple border- public minibus 6,000 CFA from Grand-Bassam. Yellow fever card checked. Got the visa on arrival, but they didn't want my collection of USD (1x$100, 2x$20, and 2x$5). They only wanted $100 and $50 bills. Had to pay in CFA, which they originally said would be 105,000, but dropped to 100,000 when I said it was all I had. Not sure if this was legit or not, but the process was simple enough, and the officials very nice.

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Easy border on both sides. Ghana visa on arrival was possible, all year round he told us. We are Dutch, easy process. 100.000CFA or $150.

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I had already received my visa in Abidjan. I travelled from Abidjan to the border by public minibus (7000cfa). I had to queue for a while on the Cote d'Ivoire side - and of course I had to go through baggage control. I then got the exit stamp and only had to enter Ghana. You go to a small office for this - the people were very nice and always up for a laugh. Entry stamp ready. There is even an ATM at the border, so I was able to withdraw cedi straight away and there were SIM card (100 Cedi) sellers everywhere.

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main border between Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. The entire process of leaving Ivory Coast, immigration and customs was easy, and to enter Ghana we obtained a transit visa for $50. You cannot pay in Euros but you can pay in dollars or francs. They give 48 hours to cross Ghana. It is better to enter at noon, and then you have 2 nights and leave the next day. We stamp the Carnet de Passage.

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Ghana border VOA worked fine $150 each smooth process, CdP also worked fine again no hassles, both borders done in about two hours (we were early and Ivory Coast CDP guy was not in yet)

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Easy border from Cote d’ Ivoire to Ghana. Visa on arrival available in Ghana at US$150. Friendly service.

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CI>Ghana,
Easy process with Ghana visa (issued in Conakry) and CDP, in and out in 1hr. All officials very helpful and friendly. I went @ 15:00, not busy at all.

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CI to Ghana If you do not have CoP do not cross this border. They asked us for 350,000CFAS (€550) for the TIP (passavant). They have a mafia set up and it is impossible to cross with the car if you do not pay. We spent 4 hours arguing and it was of no use. We crossed back to CI and went to the northern border of Takikro, where they charged us 50 Cedis (€4) for the TIP. Incredible but true

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Is the fastest border in so far.We were scared because of the comments...

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Easy to cross. but Ghana side the office for stamp on carnet close at 6pm.! and no uniform = not officer . they are fixer but you don't need them even they say "i won't ask you money, it's free!" but as you know 🤦🏻

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Easy border (at least with Carnet). We got there early in the morning and everything went smoothly. Took us about two hours.

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German and Brazil with CDP from Cote D Ivoire to Ghana very slow everything. Visa on arrival 150 $ 30 days bring new dollar notes with 3D secure on the 100 $ Note stamp carnet out and in everything easy no invitation letter just Hotel Adresse

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1h15 all in all for the two borders. Confirmed with a timer!

Ivory coast went quiet fast, after passport controls/stamps they check for vaccine passport and you have to go the health check so they check your vaccine passport. And then the customs in the building. It's a the first floor at your left and then the first office at your left. there they stamp our CPD. For Ghana all smooth, same with questions about our itinerary but all fine police passports/vaccine passports and then customs with CPD stamp.

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Cdi to Ghana.
Border is easy but frustratingly slow, took me about 3 hours. But everyone was very helpful and friendly.
If you have the "normal" LP from entering Ivory Coast then you don't need the "exit LP"!
I met a traveler who had both, they where only interested in his original. I did not have the exit LP and had no issues!

CDP on the Ghana side took 45 minutes, there's a guy floating around the waiting area who sells working and registered MTN sim cards. 40 cidi for the card, he overcharged for data.

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French Passports

Ivorian Side
Very Fast and easy (immigration and custom) - the Laisser Passer for exit is absolutely necessary !

Ghanean Side
We did our Visa in Abidjan
Immigration is quite fast ans easy
Custom for our car (we have CPD) took 45 minutes

Nothing to pay on both sides
Friendly staff

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Some information about the VOA for Ghana. We crossed the Ivory Coast-Ghana border. There are 2 choices for the visa at the border, either you apply for the tourist visa for $150 (a priori this may change depending on your nationality... but my understanding of English is quickly limited), or you can apply at a transit visa for $50 but you have 48 hours to cross the country. We took the transit visa because after Togo we are going back to France by road and we will have time to visit Ghana on the way back.

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Friendly and modern border staff speaks English on both sides. From ivory coast to Ghana with motorbike without visa and without carnet (not recommended)

Make sure you get the exit permit from Ministry in Abidjan, they will stop you without. For the rest very easy. Ghana visa on arrival was possible fill in 2 forms and pay 150 usd with receipt.

I did get a temporary vehicle import paper but I had to move heaven and hell first. they made me promise I wouldn't tell anyone.

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Ghana -> Ivory coste
Ghana side was easy and take maybe 30 minutes
IC was longer. Border is actuly close because of Djihadime... so we have previously done a laisse passe (requested at Accra embassy and send directly the paper at the boarder after 10 days).
So good so phare all was good but need patience. Take 3h to find the laisse passe, get our visa stamp and get a vignette for our motorbike (we don't have CDP).
Need to be very polite with officer or you will stay way longer...

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From CdI to Ghana on public transport. Must have authorisation de la sortie from Ministère de l'intérieur in Abidjan. With letter it's easy, I had an exit date 9 days before I showed up ("a partir de"). Moneychangers on both sides present. There are ATMs in Ghanaian side but they charge commission for withdrawals. Last espresso on Ivorian side. Ivorian MTN reached well into Ghana. Minibus to Ghana 120cedis.

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From CDI to Ghana. Very good and easy border. A little too long but easy. Right now you need an autorization to leave from CDI. If you have this one and the "carnet" : No any problem !

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Ghana -> Ivory Coast
Ghanaian side stamped us out with only a little confusion over our Laissez Passez from the embassy in Cotonou (instead of a Carnet).
Ivory Coast: use the large parking area to your right. Go to the big truck inspection building and take the stairs up. It's the second or third door on the left, but just ask somebody for Carnet or vignette touristique, whatever you want to use.
For us, it turned into a difficult standoff to not pay the CFA 20k they were asking for. Everybody is involved in this little theatre play. From the big boss down to the cashier. In the end, the boss made it look like he was paying for us.
But yeah, cost us two or three hours and involved being yelled at multiple times.

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From Ghana to Cote d'Ivoire.
Easy border with CPI. Took 45 min in total. No hassels. Good profesionals.
In both borders you must register the car, then imigration and customs.

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Avoid if you do not have a carnet!!! They are making it impossible for you to get through without one.

They will not issue a TIP for some reason.
The only way that they are letting you through is with a bond or a bribe for 749 cedi. Refused to pay and they would not let us proceed.

We left border as it closed without the temporary Import Permit. Got turned around at customs checkpoint and was escorted back.

Have had to buy a bond for 120,00 CIFA, been here 2 days getting this sorted!!!

Use Niembe as no issues there. Tried explaining about corruption line for Country, none of them give a hoot!!

This is a rotten border where they are all in on the scam!

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Ivory Coast to Ghana.
Without CPD and without bond:
After 2 hours today, one Ghana officer wanted to sell to us the "illegal" Import Temporary Vehicle (ITV) at 500$. After some negociations 350$.
We didnt accept and turned back to Ivory Coast :-(
We found the solution : the next day, we were going to Niablé at the north east and we crossed to Ghana for 55 cdis (9€)!
So please, dont play with these corupted officers and go north ;-)

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Ghana to Ivory Coast
Ghana easy and quick.
Ivory Coast a nightmare with chaos, disinformation and totally unfriendly chief of customs. We have carnet but didn't want to use it because we're getting out of pages. We asked for passavant, filled up paper and we were told we have to pay 20 000 cfa. No way to convenience that others are not paying. Officer saw that we have CDP so he destroyed vignette that we filled and shouted at us. No way to discuss. He were rude. We left with lost page on carnet and really angry.

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the border works from 6.30 am to 6.30pm
. . . . .

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Entering Ghana without a carnet

Since 1st may 2019 the rules changed in Ghana for ecowas registered cars. Non ecowas registered cars can enter with a carnet or with paying a bond.
But a lot of frontdesk employees have no idea that the bond is also a possibility. And this is the big problem of getting in without a carnet.

We entered Ghana thru the Elubo border without a carnet with a Belgian car and we got a TIP. How you can do this:

- When you exit Ivory Coast, wich is easy and straight forward, you drive over the bridge. On your right is the compound with immigration and customs for entering ghana.
- register the car in a small hut on the corner when entering the compound. They ask if you have a carnet. If you do not have one they might act a bit difficult. You get a little paper.persist you can get throu without a carnet.
- you pass immigration on your left. We skipped this one because we wanted to make sure our car could enter. We went back after we got the TIP.
- go to custom registration office (last window of the building) and give the little paper.
Those people, the front desk, could only say to us that we could not enter without carnet. They did not know about the possibilty of paying a bond. Ask for the TIP
- if you are having problems with the registration office, go the the office of the preventive unit they know about the bond and can help you out.
- the bond goes tru a freight forwarder. You have 2 choices:
1: go to the office next to the preventive unit of " Ghana freight forwarders.". They can help you with the bond. We do think you only can get the bond back at this border.
2: how we did it: contact Kossi, he is the middle man of an other freight forwarder. He managed to get us a TIP for 3 months. His boss (Robert) from Comexa Ghana payed our bond to customs and payed Kossi. We did not have to come back to the border, we can go to Robert in Tema when we ship the car out and he collects the bond.

2 high officers of the preventive unit said to us that the bond is the normal procedure. Everybody without carnet can get a TIP on a bond.
We also informed 1 guy of the front office, hoping that he would spread the word.

In attachment you find photos of the buildings and contactdetails of Kossi.

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Smooth out of IC, no hassle. CDP had to be stamped upstairs in a room, ask around were to go.

Into Ghana very straight forward. We had gotten the 90 days at the IC embassy, but they only stamped 30. I explained we were leaving Ghana in 45 days so we needed the visa. After showing our flights he gave us 60 days. The rest was pretty straightforward too!

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Coming from Ivory Coast with a motorbike Royal Enfield Himalayan. I was little bit late... 5pm . I pay 50 cedi for the TIP , no carnet. Everything was alright but they just ask me for my internal driving license ( I m French ).

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Leaving CI easy and smooth. Customs scanned our truck (Unimog) in truck scanner. Staff friendly and no fuss at all. We have a great coloured scan of our beloved truck now :)

Ghana demanded carnet at first. Carnet or deposit (value of car and to be refunded at SAME border post) seem only legitimate options. After some begging the officer granted us a TVI at price displayed (30 road fund and 30 TVI for trucks (20 for cars)). TVI is for ECOWAS registered cars only, double checked this information online. Customs post 40 km further checked with her boss if she could let us go as document is illegal. Everyone friendly and nobody demanded any money.

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had a little hassle on the Ghana side because the Togo/Ghana had only given a small stamped receipt. All seemed to fade away and wasn't a problem.

checked in on Cote D'Ivoire side. eas shown up to the customs chief who spoke a little english and was really helpful. He organised my TIP and said I don't have to pay. Normally CFA 20000.
Everything else went well.

Only panic was my yellow medical card didn't have some vaccination and they administered it via injection. Paranoia of unknown African diseases made the injection feel far worse. 😃😃 .

Road to Abidjan was best since South Africa.

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We had a carnet so this border was very easy and fast. First border where finally costums and immigration are in the same building (not 5km away from each other). Stamped out of CI easy because no carnet stamp needed. Entering Ghana also easy, just fill out entry form and get your stamp, then carnet stamped on the same building. Took about 40 min total. After that; beautiful roads all the way to Accra :) Be careful of the speed limit! First country after Morocco where they have radars. (You can easily get away with a bribe tho, but make sure to get the bribe as low as possible, in the end they'll accept anything).

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Coming from Ivory Coast to Ghana.

Getting out of Ivory Coast easy but was busy. First get the exit stamp in the passport then go to the customs to get the car checked out.

Ghana side: get on the compound. We have no Carnet and did the whole thing starting from the end (don’t know if it’s because we don’t have a carnet). So we started with the temporary import permit. The fees are official and stated on the booth: 50ghc for a car. The paper is done by one officer but has to be approved by another one. Fees to be paid at Ecobank. The officier did trouble a little bit as we had no international car documents but still went really easy.

Then got the stamp in the passport.

We were not asked to check our yellow fever cards.

Then registered the temporary import permit information in a book at the entrance of the compound and had to pay extra 15ghc, we did get a receipt and another officer asked for it at the exit so seemed legit.

We were surprised that it went so easy and at no extra cost!

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If you try to enter Ghana using the insurance bond option, make sure you can re-enter Côté d'ivoire in case you need to turn around. We tried to get an 'emergency' visa and they were very grumpy about it then said it was 150USD plus "some extra" for their trouble. Then the bond insurance agent tried to get huge money for the entry of the car. It kept changing but he settled on 600USD for a 7 day transit visa. There is an official amount but the agent fee will be whatever they can extort from you. So I would advise to avoid Ghana unless you have a motorcycle or carnet. And get your visa in Abidjan.

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Leaving Cote D'Ivoire easy enough. They log the vehicle details. I asked the police where to get the exit stamp. He said I'll get it for you. And he did. Very easy out. No other documents requested. I have a carnet but coming in from Liberia they wouldn't stamp it. No temporary import documen asked for. There is an EcoBank this side with an ATM. So if entering you could use this to withdraw cash.

Entering Ghana. This was a revalation. First proper border post for a long time! Even a duty free shop!

First port health want to see yellow fever. The immigration stamp you in.

Next go around the side to customs. I have carnet. Easy stamp in. If I hadn't dropped my phone at some point. id have been through both borders in 45 mins. But after using it on the Ghana side. I dropped it and never to be seen again. I think a passr by saw it and grabbed it. The border officials couldn't be more helpful.

Still. Easy border if you've the carnet

I asked for a friend about him not having a carnet. But his circumstances made it impossible to obtain it (flew to London and bought bike for export. So no time for the carnet as 7 days to leave)

The customs guy said basically. No carnet no entry. But. And its a big but. They sometimes issue short term temp permits. Maybe 7 days. You pay a small fee of €15 or thereabouts.

It's down to the officer on the day. So. There is a slim chance you can enter. But be polite. Have a story. Or have the carnet. Good luck if you chance it. The border seemed legit. So not sure they're able to be bribed

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Busy border. Made to wait two hours for stamp on carnet from customs on ivory coast sise as the chief was at lunch. At least 130 to 3.

Ghanaian side we were greeted at the entrance with the news our car (right hand drive) would need to be escorted as it was illegal. Managed to get carnet stamped and this was not taken any further.

Had a transit visa. Managed to get at emergency visa at the border on the spot for 150 dollars. ouch.

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