The Chadian currency: a cultural algorithm
One of those things everyone in Chad does but nobody ever talks about.
Chad has two official languages: French and Arabic. When money comes up in French, everything is straightforward. A 100 FCFA coin is 100, a 1000 FCFA bill is 1000. But when the same conversation happens in Chadian Arabic, which is how most everyday commerce works, every price gets divided by 5. That 100 coin becomes "ichrine" (20), and the 1000 bill becomes "miten" (200).
This only applies to money. Counting people, objects, distances, anything else uses standard Arabic numbers. The divide-by-5 only shows up when you're talking about a price.
Spoken price = FCFA ÷ 5
| What you're buying | Spoken Value | Face Value |
|---|---|---|
| Street sandwich | khamsine (50) | 250 FCFA |
| Bus ride | miya (100) | 500 FCFA |
| Phone credit | miten (200) | 1000 FCFA |
Common prices in N'Djamena. The spoken value in Arabic is always the FCFA amount divided by 5.
Also, you can only express amounts that map to actual coins and bills. And for large amounts like cars or houses, the system becomes hybrid: millions and billions are spoken at face value, but everything below still gets divided by 5. So 1250000 FCFA would be "malyoun wa khamsine alif": 1 million at face value, plus 50000 (which is 250000 ÷ 5).
Where it comes from
There are two theories. The first is historical: before the Franc CFA existed, the region traded in Riyals. When France introduced the Franc, the Riyal was pegged at 5 Francs. The Franc eventually replaced the Riyal on paper, but in spoken Arabic the old counting never changed.
The second is practical: smaller numbers are faster to say and easier to negotiate with. Instead of 10000 you say 2000. It speeds things up at the market.
Either way, it stuck. My grandparents did it, my parents do it, I do it, my little cousins do it. Nobody decided to keep it going, it just never stopped. Some people call the unit "Riyal," others say "Franca" while still dividing by 5. The name varies but the math is always the same.
Who gets confused
Mostly Arabic speakers from other countries. They understand every word but the numbers don't add up. They hear "miten", think 200 Francs, and the vendor means 1000. It also trips up Chadians who grew up with the system but never thought about it consciously. When someone asks them to explain why they said 200 for a 1000 bill, they often don't know where to start because they never had to think about it before. Both people end up confused, just for different reasons.
A famous Libyan travel vlogger called Rahalista captured this well when he visited Chad. He speaks Arabic fluently and has been to dozens of countries, but the Chadian pricing threw him off completely. In his video he's holding a bill, hearing a different number from the vendor, and trying to figure out what's going on.
Why I built a converter for it
I built Monnaie Tchad for myself and a few friends to skip the mental math. You enter an FCFA amount and get the spoken Arabic equivalent. Going the other way (understanding what a local tells you) is harder, because if you don't speak Arabic you wouldn't know how to type what you just heard. I might explore voice recognition for that if enough people want it.
Monnaie Tchad
Enter an FCFA amount, get the spoken Arabic value.
Worth noting that all of this is purely oral. If you ask someone to write down a price, it will always be the face value. So if you're ever lost in a conversation about money in Chad, just ask the other person to write the number. On paper, there's never any confusion.
None of this is documented anywhere official. It's just something people absorb through daily life, and it's been that way for generations. If you know of a similar system in another country, I'd genuinely like to hear about it.