How to travel by road from Accra-Ghana to Cote d’Ivoire-Abidjan

How to travel by road from Accra-Ghana to Cote d’Ivoire-Abidjan

There is going to be a time when you have to travel out of your country to another as a Ghanaian. This journey may take you to a neighbouring West African country like Côte d’Ivoire by road.

If you have not to traveled by road to another country before, this article based on experience on how to travel by road from Accra-Ghana to Cote d’Ivoire-Abidjan will be very useful and educative.

This was the case as I had to go on a vacation in Côte d’Ivoire.

To have experiences to share, I decided to go by road and I got the good, bad and ugly parts of the story of those who journey across the Ghana Côte d’Ivoire border suffer. Covid-19 restrictions have further created impediments being exploited by officers of the law.

This article is divided into the pre-departure, departure, and arrival to help all who may one day need to travel for the first time to another African country by road. It will surely help even those who may travel by air, train, or water if that option is available.

Pre-departure

Do well to have your Ghana card on you or your passport or your national ID card. It is recommended that you travel to Abidjan using your national ID instead of your passport.

Traveling across West African borders does not require a passport, but you need a national ID card.

The pre-departure period starts when you decide to travel to Abidjan and ends where the driver ignites the engine of the Ford bus.

Issues that must engage your attention are where to board a car from Accra to Abidjan. Truth be told, the State Transport Company (STC) of Ghana does not have buses for this trip as of June 2022.

Their customer service centre indicated that few people travel to Abidjan from Ghana, hence it was not profitable. The truth may be that the service is not marketed well enough to inform the public because nearly two buses leave Ghana to Côte d’Ivoire every day.

The best place for you to get a bus for this journey is the Kaneshie Lorry station, where you can get a Ford bus to Elibo, which is Ghana’s border town.

If you are planning to travel to Abidjan or any other West African country, It is recommended that you travel in a way that will ensure you get to your destination while it is still day. Leave Ghana early and get to your destination while the sun is still up.

You don’t have to get to such a destination late where language is going to be a barrier, and you don’t know the terrain.

Hence, catching the first Ford bus is key. The bus takes off between 6 am and 7 am. This is not fixed, as it depends on each day’s travelers going to Côte d’Ivoire.

Hence, a day or two to the journey, go to the station to know exactly where to pick up a bus and get the Elibo Ford driver at the post’s phone number.

A day to the journey, call him. It is possible you may not travel with him, but he will be of help to you by telling you more about how to catch the first bus.

On the day of the travel, leave home at about 4 am.

Get a driver to pick you up in the morning at the station and get there on time.

The price of the bus ticket from Kaneshie to Elibo is Ghs120 or 10,000 CFA. This may change depending on the prevailing exchange rate.

Do your best to change your money into CFA before you leave. Do this at a Forex bureau. Before doing this, check the rate online before going to the Forex bureau, or else you may be reaped and given a high rate.

If you intend to spend say GHS2000 during your stay, change enough that will be equal to 2500ghs. Because crossing the border alone will cost you close to 300ghs in Ivorian currency of 25000 CFA

At the time of writing this article, the exchange rate was 128Ghs for 10,000 CFA. The 10,000 CFA is equivalent to Ghs100 once you get to Abidjan.

Ensure your luggage is well parked, and keep an eye on it. Never allow strangers to handle it during the journey.

Make sure you carry a jacket or a pullover along. The Ford bus is a fully air-conditioned bus, and traveling for up to 8 hours in that can be a chilling experience. You can use the jack to keep you warmer throughout the journey.

Again, do not drink too much water ahead of the journey or during the journey because it will require that the driver stops severally for you to urinate. This may delay the arrival time at Elibo.

On arrival at the Ford station, pay for your ticket in Ghana cedis or CFA if you have enough. But it is recommended that you save your CFA while in Ghana and start spending it only when you are ready to cross the border.

Once you pay for the journey, get sorted out and know where you will sit, and do just that.

On that bus, you are likely to find Ivorians going home as well as other Ghanaian nationals.

Make a few friends because it will become very useful as you travel with them.

Most Ivorians on board speak English while for Ghanaians, we cannot even speak basic French.

Departure…

Once the driver takes off, know that your first part of the journey is going to take about 8 hours.

Hence if your bus leaves Kaneshie at 7 am, you will arrive at Elibo at about 3 pm.

This is the Ghana border town. The journey is filled with the opportunity to see the flora and fauna of Ghana’s hinterland. Intermittent rains will greet you as you journey.

The checkpoints on the road mounted by the Ghana Police, Military, and Immigration are good but the rate at which they stop your bus, delay you and extort money from drivers will alarm you.

We are our own enemies.

These security officers have monetized the road and will take money from the driver no matter what especially because it’s a Ford bus.

Upon arrival at the main Ghana Immigration checkpoint, all passengers will be required to alight to allow the immigration officers to check the bus in toto. Here, all passengers will need to show some ID as proof. Ghanaians on board do not suffer extortion here but foreigners will be charged between 20ghs and 50ghs to cross.

This extortion galore would be the experience at nearly all checkpoints until you arrive at the Elibo Ford station.

Once you arrive at the Elibo Ford station, be very careful, keep an eye on your luggage, phone and wallet.

This is because, there are young men and drivers who will rush to you, to help you cross the Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire borders. While they provide their service, do not trust anyone.

While Ghana calls its land boundary the border, Ivorians call it Frontier.

At the time of the travel, the border was closed but these guys and drivers at the Elibo border will help you cross at a fee not less than 10000 CFA which is equivalent to GHS120.

They will bribe immigration officers on the Ghana side of the border. Then you move to the Ghana departure station where you fill out the departure sheet. This is just like the visitor’s book you complete each time you visit an office but get ready because the Ghana Immigration Service officers will extort not less than ghs10.00 from Ghanaians and up to ghs50.00 from foreigners here before allowing them to cross to the other side.

Note that is amount is different from the GHS120 you paid to the guys to help you cross.

Note that at the border you will spend about 20,000 CFA before you cross and board an Abidjan-bound bus.

If you don’t have the CFA, change your cedis at the Ghana side of the border before you cross into Cote d’Ivoire. This is very important if not you will be stranded.

On the Ghana side of the journey, do well to buy an Ivorian SIM because your Ghana SIMs may stop working for calls and data as you get into the inland of Abidjan.

Once you are through, the guys will onboard you and your luggage on an Aboboya to the Ivorians border.

They will ask you to wait in the Aboboya and take your Ghana card from you.

They will work with the officers at the Ivorian border, pay their way through, and then you will be called by the officers to pass.

Here again, you will pay 2000 CFA which is equivalent to Gha20.00 for a yellow fever card. No, injection, no receipt.

Then you enter to move to the Cote d’Ivoire border town station at Noe which is about a 10-minute walk from the Ivorian border.

You are in Cote d’Ivoire but your troubles and journey are only half over.

You have to board a minibus from Noe to Abidjan which is about 4 hours 30 minutes journey because of the checkpoints and the traffic that will greet you as you enter Abidjan.

The transport cost is 6000 CFA which is Ghana’s GHS60.00. After the driver has collected the lorry fair and you are seated. He will come around to explain the challenges on the road as a result of the Ivorian military, immigration, and police. The problem is extortion which is permitted if you want to continue your journey just as you have on the Ghana side of the road.

The driver will collect an additional 6,000 CFA from foreigners on board and 4,000 CFA from Ivorians on board. This money will be given to security officers at the various checkpoints to permit easy passage.

Once the bus takes off, you will come across three checkpoints after just 5 minutes of travel.

The driver will have to park and walk to each of the officers stationed, provide data on foreigners on board and citizens, the pay his way through using the money he collected from you for the officers.

You have not less than 10 checkpoints before you reach the main cities of Abidjan.

In fact, they all want money… but it is less frequent on the Cote d’Ivoire frontiers than on the Ghana side. Your journey which should take about 3 hours can take more than 4 hours due to checkpoint stoppages and delays. Just be patient and experience it.

Once you enter Abidjan, the first thing that will greet you is massive traffic from 4 pm. The road from the Cote d’Ivoire boarder to Abidjan is several times better than Ghana’s section.

Once you get to Abidjan, you can smile. The mini-bus will get to its final destination bus stop at Treichsville.

This is how to travel by road from Accra-Ghana to Cote d’Ivoire-Abidjan. We hope this was an eye-opener, informative, entertaining, and educative.

Again, do not drink too much water ahead of the journey or during the journey because it will require that the driver stops severally for you to urinate. This may delay the arrival time at Elibo.

On arrival at the Ford station, pay for your ticket in Ghana cedis or CFA if you have enough. But it is recommended that you save your CFA while in Ghana and start spending it only when you are ready to cross the border.

Once you pay for the journey, get sorted out and know where you will sit, and do just that.

On that bus, you are likely to find Ivorians going home as well as other Ghanaian nationals.

Make a few friends because it will become very useful as you travel with them.

Most Ivorians on board speak English while for Ghanaians, we cannot even speak basic French.

Source: Ghana Education News