💰 African Currencies Quiz
Match countries to the money they use, symbols included.
The 54 countries of Africa use 42 different currencies between them. The West African CFA franc is the most widely shared, used by 8 of them.
African Currencies Quiz at a glance
- Distinct currencies
- 42
- Countries
- 54
- Most widely shared
- West African CFA franc — 8 countries
- Currencies used by one country only
- 41
Currencies against real people, on the same questions — no account needed. New currencies rooms start every 5 minutes, rotating through regions.
Why so many answers here are “franc”
Africa’s 54 countries use 42 different currencies, but that number hides the real shape of this quiz. Because the answer is the unit — franc, dinar, shilling — rather than the full name, 20 of the 54 countries here answer the same word: franc. Knowing which ones, and why, is most of this category.
The CFA franc is two currencies, not one
Fourteen countries use something called the CFA franc, and it is a common mistake to think that is a single shared currency. There are two, with separate central banks and separate banknotes that are not interchangeable, even though both are pegged to the euro at the same rate.
- West African CFA franc (8). Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.
- Central African CFA franc (6). Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
- And six more francs besides. The DRC, Rwanda, Burundi, Djibouti, the Comoros and Guinea all use their own francs, unrelated to the CFA zones and to each other.
The other clusters
- Dinar, in the north. Algeria, Tunisia and Libya.
- Shilling, in the east. Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Somalia — a legacy of British East Africa.
- Pound, along the Nile. Egypt, Sudan and South Sudan.
- The rand zone, in the south. Lesotho’s loti and Eswatini’s lilangeni are pegged one-to-one to the South African rand, which is itself legal tender in both. Namibia’s dollar works the same way.
Names that tell you something
- Botswana — pula. The word means “rain” in Setswana, in a country that is mostly Kalahari. It is also the national motto.
- Zambia and Malawi — kwacha. From a word meaning “dawn”, adopted around independence.
- Ghana — cedi. From the Akan word for the cowrie shell, which was used as money along this coast for centuries.
- Ethiopia — birr. Simply “silver” in Amharic.
- Angola — kwanza. Named after the Kwanza River.
- Mauritania — ouguiya. One of only two currencies in the world not divided into hundredths: it splits into five khoums. The other is Madagascar’s ariary, five iraimbilanja — and both are African.
Currencies of Africa
| Country | Currency |
|---|---|
| Algeria | Algerian dinar (د.ج) |
| Angola | Angolan kwanza (Kz) |
| Benin | West African CFA franc (Fr) |
| Botswana | Botswana pula (P) |
| Burkina Faso | West African CFA franc (Fr) |
| Burundi | Burundian franc (Fr) |
| Cabo Verde | Cape Verdean escudo (Esc) |
| Cameroon | Central African CFA franc (Fr) |
| Central African Republic | Central African CFA franc (Fr) |
| Chad | Central African CFA franc (Fr) |
| Comoros | Comorian franc (Fr) |
| Congo | Central African CFA franc (Fr) |
| Djibouti | Djiboutian franc (Fr) |
| DRC | Congolese franc (FC) |
| Egypt | Egyptian pound (£) |
| Equatorial Guinea | Central African CFA franc (Fr) |
| Eritrea | Eritrean nakfa (Nfk) |
| Eswatini | Swazi lilangeni (L) |
| Ethiopia | Ethiopian birr (Br) |
| Gabon | Central African CFA franc (Fr) |
| Gambia | dalasi (D) |
| Ghana | Ghanaian cedi (₵) |
| Guinea | Guinean franc (Fr) |
| Guinea-Bissau | West African CFA franc (Fr) |
| Ivory Coast | West African CFA franc (Fr) |
| Kenya | Kenyan shilling (Sh) |
| Lesotho | Lesotho loti (L) |
| Liberia | Liberian dollar ($) |
| Libya | Libyan dinar (ل.د) |
| Madagascar | Malagasy ariary (Ar) |
| Malawi | Malawian kwacha (MK) |
| Mali | West African CFA franc (Fr) |
| Mauritania | Mauritanian ouguiya (UM) |
| Mauritius | Mauritian rupee (₨) |
| Morocco | Moroccan dirham (د.م.) |
| Mozambique | Mozambican metical (MT) |
| Namibia | Namibian dollar ($) |
| Niger | West African CFA franc (Fr) |
| Nigeria | Nigerian naira (₦) |
| Rwanda | Rwandan franc (Fr) |
| São Tomé and Príncipe | São Tomé and Príncipe dobra (Db) |
| Senegal | West African CFA franc (Fr) |
| Seychelles | Seychellois rupee (₨) |
| Sierra Leone | Leone (Le) |
| Somalia | Somali shilling (Sh) |
| South Africa | South African rand (R) |
| South Sudan | South Sudanese pound (£) |
| Sudan | Sudanese pound (ج.س) |
| Tanzania | Tanzanian shilling (Sh) |
| Togo | West African CFA franc (Fr) |
| Tunisia | Tunisian dinar (د.ت) |
| Uganda | Ugandan shilling (Sh) |
| Zambia | Zambian kwacha (ZK) |
| Zimbabwe | Zimbabwean dollar ($) |
About the African Currencies quiz
- How many countries are in the Africa quiz?
- 54 — every country in Africa with the data this quiz needs. Questions are drawn fresh from that pool each round, so no two rounds repeat.
- Do countries in Africa share currencies?
- Some do. 8 of the 54 use the West African CFA franc, which is why there are 42 currencies rather than 54.
- Why do some answers look similar?
- Because names repeat across borders — several countries call their currency a dollar, a franc or a peso. The table above gives the symbol alongside the name, which is often what separates them.
- How many currencies are used in Africa?
- 42 across 54 countries, because several share one — 8 of them use the West African CFA franc.
- Does the quiz include currencies that no longer exist?
- Live rooms occasionally ask about pre-euro currencies such as the Deutsche Mark and the French Franc. The table above lists only currencies in use today.