Africa

Africa has 54 UN-member countries — more than any other continent — and its currency landscape is dominated by one striking colonial-era fact worth mastering on its own: fourteen countries share a currency literally called the "CFA franc," split into two separate, non-interchangeable currencies. Africa's representation in the higher-level blocs covered later in this book grew significantly in the 2020s: South Africa remains Africa's sole founding BRICS member (joined 2010), but Egypt and Ethiopia both joined BRICS as full members from January 2024, and the African Union itself became a permanent G20 member in 2023 — meaning the whole continent, not just one country, now has a standing seat at the G20 table.

Africa — Capitals and Currencies

North Africa

West Africa

Central Africa

East Africa

Southern Africa

The CFA Franc Zones — One Name, Two Currencies

Fourteen African countries use a currency called the "CFA franc" — but there are actually two entirely separate CFA francs, issued by two different central banks, that are not directly interchangeable with each other despite sharing an identical name and (until recently) an identical peg to the euro. This is one of the highest-value currency traps in the entire African section.

• West African CFA Franc (XOF), issued by the BCEAO (Banque Centrale des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest), used by eight countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.
• Central African CFA Franc (XAF), issued by the BEAC (Banque des États de l'Afrique Centrale), used by six countries: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon.

Both are pegged at a fixed rate to the euro and both trace back to French colonial monetary policy (the acronym originally stood for "Colonies Françaises d'Afrique"), but a banknote from one zone cannot be spent directly in the other without conversion — a fact examiners like precisely because it sounds like it should be one currency.

Memory hook — "Same name, two banks, one continent split in half": West Africa's CFA franc comes from the BCEAO; Central Africa's comes from the BEAC — remember "B-C for the coast (west)" and picture the BEAC sitting further inland/central. Fourteen countries, one shared name, two non-interchangeable currencies.

Practice Recall: Name all eight West African CFA franc countries and all six Central African CFA franc countries, then state which central bank issues each, without looking back.

Landlocked countries in Africa form the continent's — and the world's — largest such cluster: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe — sixteen countries, exactly matching the "Africa has the most landlocked countries" superlative fact. Lesotho is a striking special case: it is entirely surrounded by a single other country (South Africa) — an "enclave country," a status it shares worldwide with only one other nation, San Marino (surrounded entirely by Italy) and, arguably, Vatican City (surrounded entirely by Rome). Island nations in Africa include Cabo Verde, Comoros, Madagascar (the world's fourth-largest island), Mauritius, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Seychelles — all in or off the eastern and western coasts, and all worth remembering as the African countries where a "capital and currency" question is more likely to pair with a "which ocean" question than a border-sharing one.