Costs in Guinea-Bissau

Guinea-Bissau has no single official monthly household budget or unified state system for living-cost support. The EHCVM 2021/22 household survey records consumption, food, non-food spending, housing, health, education and transfers, while WFP monitors prices weekly across 44 markets. These sources describe spending patterns but do not replace a current household calculation. The currency is XOF/FCFA; the reference exchange rate is 1 EUR = 655.957 XOF. Inflation was about 3.8% in 2024, food inflation reached about 5% in December 2024, and prices remain sensitive to rice imports, fuel, transport, cashew income, exchange conditions and the climate. Households should separate recurring basic needs from participation costs and risk reserves. Basic needs include food, housing, water and energy. Participation costs include transport, communication and education. Risk reserves cover illness, repairs, harvest or flood losses and import-price shocks. Cashew income affects roughly 70–80% of household incomes directly or indirectly, so spending capacity can change during the year. Remittances were about 9.8% of GDP in 2024 and may support some households, but they cannot be treated as a universal income source. National poverty was about 50.5% in 2021, compared with about 21% in Bissau and more than 50% in rural areas; about 39.9% of people were below the World Bank’s 3-dollar-per-day purchasing-power measure. Housing costs include rent, deposits, commissions, land or building costs, imported materials, repairs, water, electricity and transport. Bissau has a larger rental and service market, while rural households more often build their own homes or live with relatives. Informal settlements, multigenerational households and self-construction are common functional arrangements. No reliable national rent register or regular official rent series has been established. Specialist estimates indicate that about 83.2% of the population lives in precarious housing and that only about 5.77% of urban households could finance the cheapest newly built house. Before paying, check the contract, the land or use status, the deposit, any commission and the cost of utilities and repairs. Utility expenses depend on the local supply system. EAGB, the national electricity and water utility, operates alongside wells, hand pumps, private water sellers, tanks, generators and solar systems. Electricity access was about 40.5% in 2023. The OMVG electricity import increased supply capacity from 2025, but outages and the need for backup power remain possible. Basic water access reached about 62%, while safely managed water reached about 24%; basic sanitation reached about 28% and safely managed sanitation about 15%. Around half of hand pumps were reported to be non-functional and about 65% of protected open wells were contaminated. Publicly verified current EAGB tariffs, connection charges and billing rules are not consistently available, so local prices, fuel, transport, maintenance and charging costs need current checking. Rice is the dominant staple and depends heavily on imports, ports and transport. Local rice, maize, millet, sorghum, fish, cashew and subsistence production can reduce cash spending but do not provide the same options in every household or season. Rice prices temporarily rose by as much as about 40% in 2024. A 2023 price-control reference listed 17,500 XOF for a 50-kilogram bag of broken rice and 22,500 XOF for a 50-kilogram bag of scented rice, but subsidies or fixed-price arrangements were ending or suspended by 2024 and should not be treated as permanent guarantees. The 2024 grain harvest was forecast at about 314,000 tonnes, while about 117,000 people faced acute food insecurity during the lean season and about 68% of the population could not afford a healthy diet. Food budgets must therefore account for market, quality, region, season, transport, storage and cooking-energy costs, as well as home production, exchange, family support or WFP assistance. Mobility is mainly provided through toca-toca shared vehicles, taxis, motorcycles, canoes, private vehicles and interurban minibuses. Roads carry roughly 60–70% of passenger and freight transport; the road network is about 2,746 kilometres long, with about 28% paved. Taxis generally have no meter, so the fare should be agreed before boarding. Toca-toca travel is usually cheaper but may be crowded, and comfort and safety vary. Fuel surcharges, waiting time, freight, seasonal detours and road conditions can make rural travel substantially more expensive. Rehabilitation of rural transport links reduced an example journey from Ingoré to Ponte Caur from about 3 hours 30 minutes to about 1 hour 15 minutes in 2025, but travel conditions remain weather-dependent. Health spending can include consultations, tests, medicines, childbirth, transport, accommodation during referral and informal additional charges. Research did not establish a national compulsory health-insurance or universal prepaid equivalent. Guinea-Bissau has public health centres and hospitals, private providers, pharmacies, community health workers and referrals abroad or within the region. A high share of health spending is paid directly by households, while the sector also relies heavily on external financing. Vaccination and some preventive services may be programme-funded, but they should not automatically be counted as free general healthcare. Distance, medicine availability, age, gender and ability to pay affect access, and current fees are not consolidated in a reliable national schedule. Basic education is legally compulsory. Education through grade 6 is fully free in the formal rule, and education from grade 7 is generally intended to remain free subject to state capacity. In practice, households may pay enrolment or contributions, notebooks, writing materials, uniforms, learning materials, meals, transport, accommodation or private and religious school fees. The Ministry of Education and Higher Education, schools, religious and private providers and communities all contribute to provision. Only about 27% of children completed primary school and about 28% of school-age children were outside school in the available research, with strong differences between Bissau, Bafatá, rural and urban areas. Teacher shortages and interruptions can create repeat, childcare and transport costs. Radio and accelerated-learning programmes provide non-standard alternatives in some settings. Family costs are often managed through multigenerational households, relatives, community support, remittances, in-kind transfers, school meals and targeted WFP cash or food assistance. No nationwide child allowance, care allowance or universal family-cost payment was established in the research, and programme amounts should not be generalized. Costs may include childcare, education, health, ceremonies, care for relatives and seasonal support obligations. Eligibility and access depend on registration, family networks and programme rules. Communication costs include a SIM card, airtime, data, a device, charging and mobile-money fees. Orange Bissau and MTN/Spacetel are local providers. Orange mobile data was listed at 100 XOF for 60 MB for 24 hours, 500 XOF for 1 GB for 7 days and 2,500 XOF for 3.2 GB for 30 days; a SIM card was listed from 250 XOF. Coverage differs by location, with Bissau generally better connected. Orange Money account opening was listed as free with a minimum initial deposit of 100 XOF and a maximum balance of 100,000 XOF. Example cash-out fees were 125 XOF for 1–2,500 XOF, 250 XOF for 2,501–5,000 XOF and 350 XOF for 5,001–10,000 XOF. Orange Money is a payment and transfer service; account and financial-product questions belong to banking rather than household-cost analysis. There is no reliable national price model for leisure. Paid restaurants, events and urban recreation are more visible in Bissau, while rural leisure often relies more on community, religious or public activities with a smaller cash component. Prices depend heavily on the provider and season. Tourism expenses can be counted as local leisure, mobility or accommodation costs, but they do not create a separate national cost system. Banking, credit, accounts and financial products belong to banking; insolvency and repayment problems belong to debt; taxes, VAT and levies belong to taxation. They should only be mentioned here when they directly change a household cost. For a current budget, use XOF/FCFA and record Bissau or rural location, household size, season, income timing, cash spending, home production, transfers, school costs, health costs, transport, energy backup and an emergency reserve. Check food prices through current market information, communication prices through providers, and negotiated rent, taxi, water, health and utility charges locally. Do not import minimum budgets from Europe or treat one market price, tariff or assistance programme as a national rule.