Senegalese mobile data is priced for a market where most people top up a few hundred francs at a time, and that makes it some of the cheapest in West Africa for a visitor willing to walk into a shop. Orange, the Sonatel network, sells a dedicated tourist product called Teeru, a Wolof word for welcoming someone in, at 9,900 CFA francs. Yas, the operator most people still call Free, does not have a tourist bundle but undercuts everyone on raw data once you hold one of its cards. The CFA franc is pegged at 655.957 to the euro, so 10,000 francs is always about 15.24 euros, and you can do the conversion in your head before you even look at a dollar rate.
The trade-off is paperwork rather than money. Every Senegalese SIM is registered to an identity document, Orange's Teeru counter also wants proof that you have just arrived, and the shops that sell new lines keep office hours. A travel eSIM avoids all of that at roughly two to six times the price per gigabyte. This page sets out what the counters charge, what they ask to see, and where each one is.
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Orange Teeru, the Pack Built for Arrivals
Teeru is Orange's answer to the travel eSIM, and it is a good one. For 9,900 francs you get a SIM or an eSIM with 15 GB of data, 600 minutes to every Senegalese network, five minutes of international calls, and 500 texts. The bundle runs for fifteen days. The number itself stays alive for thirty days, and Orange will extend it through a paid option called Sama Numero for up to two years if you expect to come back.
There is one catch in the allowance worth understanding before you compare it with anything else. Of the 15 GB, 5 GB can only be used on Orange's 5G network with a 5G handset. In central Dakar that is easy to reach. In Saint-Louis, the Saloum delta or Kedougou you should treat the pack as 10 GB of 4G data, which is still generous for two weeks of maps and messaging.
| What you buy | Price | Data | Validity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orange Teeru SIM or eSIM | 9,900 F (about 15 euros) | 15 GB, of which 5 GB is 5G-only | 15 days, number 30 days |
| Yas 30-day pass, 40 GB | 10,000 F (about 15 euros) | 40 GB | 30 days |
| Orange 30-day pass, 25 GB | 5,000 F (about 7.60 euros) | 25 GB, part reserved for 5G | 30 days |
| Nomad 10 GB eSIM | 25 US dollars | 10 GB | 30 days |
| Holafly 7-day eSIM | 39.50 US dollars | Unlimited on Orange | 7 days |
Teeru is not the cheapest data in Senegal; an ordinary Orange monthly pass on top of a standard SIM beats it. What it adds is the minutes, the airport availability and a counter whose staff are used to foreign passports. Orange states that payment works by bank card or by changing money at the counter and paying through Orange Money, which matters if you land before you have found an ATM.
The Orange Pass Ladder in CFA Francs
Once you have any Orange line, Teeru or otherwise, data comes in passes bought with credit through the Max it app or the USSD code #1234#. The prices below are from Orange's own pass page in October 2026. They change with promotions, and Orange runs a lot of them, especially around Tabaski, Ramadan and the Magal of Touba.
| Pass | Data | Price | Valid for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day | 1.5 GB | 500 F | 24 hours |
| Day | 5 GB | 1,000 F | 24 hours |
| Week | 2 GB | 1,000 F | 7 days |
| Week | 10 GB | 2,500 F | 7 days |
| Month | 6 GB | 2,000 F | 30 days |
| Month | 25 GB | 5,000 F | 30 days |
| Month | 60 GB | 10,000 F | 30 days |
| Month | 100 GB | 15,000 F | 30 days |
Two details make the ladder less simple than it looks. First, on the larger monthly passes roughly half of the headline allowance is reserved for 5G, so 60 GB is closer to 30 GB if your phone or your location keeps you on 4G. Second, a 12 GB monthly pass at 3,000 francs exists but is sold only through Orange Money, which a visitor can open on a registered Orange line but rarely bothers to. There is also a night pass, 5 GB for 500 francs, valid only in the small hours, which is useful for downloading offline maps and podcasts before a long road day.
Check the balance before you trust the pack
Dial #1234# or open Max it and look at the remaining allowance after you buy. If a pass was applied to the wrong line or a promotion silently replaced it, you want to know in the shop, not on the N2 halfway to Saint-Louis.
Yas, the Network You Know as Free
Yas is the cheaper network and the one most budget travellers end up on after their first week. Axian Telecom renamed Free Senegal as Yas in November 2024, the same move it made with Telma in Madagascar, so the shops and the network carried over and only the name and the paint changed. Yas passes are bought with credit through the code #155#, and its monthly ladder is the best value in the country on paper.
| Pass | Data | Price | Valid for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day | 2 GB | 500 F | 24 hours |
| Day | 5 GB | 1,000 F | 24 hours |
| Week | 4 GB | 1,500 F | 7 days |
| Week | 9 GB | 2,000 F | 7 days |
| Month | 12.5 GB | 5,000 F | 30 days |
| Month | 40 GB | 10,000 F | 30 days |
| Month | 65 GB | 15,000 F | 30 days |
Forty gigabytes for 10,000 francs is about 38 euro cents a gigabyte, and none of it is fenced off for 5G. The caveat is where it works. Yas is strong in Dakar, Thies, Mbour, Saly and Saint-Louis and visibly weaker than Orange in the delta islands, the far east and the Casamance villages. Yas has no tourist pack and no shop inside the arrivals hall, so you buy it in town with your passport, which is fine on day two and useless at the airport. It does sell roaming passes for The Gambia to its own customers, 1 GB for 5,000 francs at the time of writing, which helps if your route crosses the Gambia on the way to Ziguinchor.
Expresso, the third network, and the smaller Promobile both sell perfectly ordinary prepaid lines, but with around 14 and 5 percent of the market respectively there is no reason to seek them out over Orange or Yas.
What the Counter Asks For, and Where to Find One
Senegal requires every SIM to be identified to a person. In practice a visitor needs the physical passport, and for Teeru Orange also asks for a valid travel document such as the boarding pass or ticket, which is how it keeps the tourist price for people who have actually just arrived. Citizens of ECOWAS states can use their national identity card instead of a passport. Bring the documents themselves; a phone photo of a passport page is not something to rely on.
Pick the right place
Teeru is sold at the Orange shop in the arrivals area at Blaise Diagne and at Orange agencies in Dakar at Republique on the Plateau, Sea Plaza on the Corniche and Almadies, plus Mbour, Saly, Ziguinchor and Cap Skirring. Orange says Saint-Louis is to follow. For Yas, use a branded Yas shop rather than a street reseller, so the registration is done properly.
Ask for the product by name
Say Teeru at Orange, or name the pass you want at Yas, and say whether you want a physical SIM or an eSIM. Teeru comes in both formats.
Hand over the passport and wait
The agent scans your document and registers the line. At the airport this is usually a few minutes per person, but a single counter serving two wide-body arrivals from Paris and New York can mean half an hour or more in the queue.
Test before you leave
Open a map and load a page while you are still at the counter. Fixing a mis-registered line later means coming back to an agency with the same passport.
The real cost of the local card is time and timing. Orange's agencies keep office hours and shut on public holidays, and Senegal has many of those. Orange has not published opening hours for the airport shop, and we could not confirm that it is staffed for every overnight arrival. Price the counter at one passport, half an hour and a degree of luck about your landing time.
Wave, Orange Money and Why a Number Still Helps
Senegal runs on two mobile wallets. Orange Money is the incumbent; Wave arrived in 2021 with a flat one percent fee on transfers and free deposits and withdrawals, and it forced the whole market to cut prices. Taxi drivers, guesthouse owners, guides in the Saloum and stallholders at Kermel and Sandaga market will often ask whether you have Wave before they ask whether you have change.
What a registered local line gives you
What it costs you
None of this is essential for a hotel-and-restaurant trip in Dakar, where cards and cash both work. It becomes useful the further you go from the Almadies, and for anyone staying long enough to make friends who would rather send you their share of a dinner bill by Wave than hunt for a 10,000 franc note.
Where the Line Falls Between eSIM and Counter
Put the numbers next to each other and the counter wins on price at every trip length. The gap is smallest on a very short stay: a 6 dollar Nomad or Airalo plan against a 9,900 franc Teeru pack is no saving at all for a two-day stopover, and the eSIM involves no queue. By a week the eSIM costs more but the convenience still pays for itself. Past ten days the local card is so much cheaper that it is worth one trip to an agency, even if you keep the eSIM installed as a backup.
A sensible split for a two-week trip
Buy Nomad's 3 GB plan at 12 dollars before you fly. Use it for the arrival, the transfer from Diass and the first day. Then buy Teeru or a Yas monthly pass in Dakar when you are rested and near an agency, and leave the eSIM as a second line for the day the local pack runs out in the middle of the Saloum.
Two groups should skip the counter entirely: anyone landing after the shops shut on a trip shorter than a week, and anyone travelling with a work phone that cannot have its SIM swapped or its profile list changed. For everyone else the decision is about when, not whether, to visit an Orange or Yas shop.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Teeru really sold inside the airport, and is it open for late flights?
Orange says Teeru is sold at its shop in the arrivals area at Blaise Diagne and that activation is immediate on showing a passport and a travel document. It does not publish the shop's hours, and we could not confirm that it is staffed through the night, so if your flight lands after midnight plan on an eSIM for the first evening and treat the shop as a bonus.
Can a foreigner buy a Yas SIM, and is it worth the trip?
Yes, with a passport at a Yas shop in town. It is worth it on a stay of two weeks or longer within the Dakar, Thies, Petite Cote and Saint-Louis area, where Yas coverage is good and its 40 GB monthly pass at 10,000 francs is the best data value in the country. For the delta, the Casamance villages or Kedougou, Orange is the safer network.
What happens to my Orange number when I leave?
The Teeru bundle lasts fifteen days and the line stays active for thirty. After that an unused line is deactivated. Orange's Sama Numero option, bought through #165#, keeps the number and its Orange Money account alive without top-ups for 3,000 francs for six months, 5,000 for a year or 10,000 for two years.
Why is part of the Orange allowance labelled 5G?
Orange is pushing customers onto its new 5G network in Dakar, so several passes and the Teeru pack carve out a share of the allowance that only works on 5G with a compatible handset. Outside 5G areas, or on an older phone, that portion simply goes unused. Compare passes on the 4G portion if you are travelling outside the capital.
Should I buy from the young men selling SIMs on the street?
It is better not to. Street resellers mostly sell credit and top-up scratch cards, which is fine, but a new line should be registered at a branded Orange or Yas shop to your own passport. A line registered to someone else can be cut off, and you will have no way to recover the number or any mobile money on it.