West Africa
Two lists run across this region and they do not match: a currency shared by eight of its countries, and a treaty twelve of them signed in 1975. The Atlantic edge is unbroken from the mouth of the Senegal River, round the Cap-Vert peninsula and along the Gulf of Guinea to the Bight of Benin, and the three landlocked members reach it through their neighbours' ports.
16 countries
Common questions
Questions about West Africa
Which West African countries are not in ECOWAS?
Four of them. Mauritania gave notice in 1999 and left in December 2000. Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger ceased to be members on 29 January 2025, having given notice in January of the previous year. The other twelve remain members. The region page keeps all 16 regardless, because membership of a treaty organisation and a position on the map are different things.
Why is Mauritania filed under West Africa?
Because the M49 scheme published by the UN Statistics Division assigns it to Western Africa, and this catalogue follows that assignment. Mauritania also sits in the Arab League and was a founding member of the Arab Maghreb Union in 1989, which is the reading that files it with the Maghreb. Both readings are recorded and neither is settled here.
Which countries here are landlocked?
Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Each borders at least one member with an Atlantic coast, and the corridors carrying their trade run to the ports at Dakar, Abidjan, Tema, Lomé and Cotonou.
What currency is used in West Africa?
Eight of the countries here use the West African CFA franc, issued from Dakar by the Central Bank of West African States and fixed at 655.957 to the euro since 1 January 1999. The rest issue their own: the naira, the cedi, the dalasi, the leone, the Guinean franc, the ouguiya, the escudo and the Liberian dollar, which circulates beside the United States dollar.