What Mauritanian ouguiya actually arrives in Mauritania when someone sends Australian dollars, at the live mid-market rate. We explain the process; we never recommend a provider.
| They send (AUD) | You receive at mid-market (MRU) |
|---|---|
| 500 AUD | 13,962 MRU |
| 1,000 AUD | 27,924 MRU |
| 2,000 AUD | 55,848 MRU |
| 5,000 AUD | 139,620 MRU |
Mid-market equivalents, not transfer quotes - the sender’s provider deducts its margin and any fees before the money reaches you. STRUCK 11:00 AEST · TUE 13 OCT.
Where the Sahara meets the Atlantic, Mauritania runs one of the world's last great desert railways - an iron-ore train several kilometres long that people ride across the dunes.
A green field with a gold crescent and star, bordered top and bottom by red stripes added in 2017. The constitutional text, as amended that year, describes a crescent and star of gold colour on a green field with a horizontal rectangular red band on each side, and assigns none of it a meaning. The flag law and decree that followed it are equally silent. The green, the gold and the crescent and star are conventionally read as symbols of Islam, and the red stripes as the blood shed by those who resisted colonial rule.
Sources: msgg.gov.mr, mjp.univ-perp.fr · checked 2026-08-27
A continent pretending to be a country - Australia is the only nation that fills an entire continent, with most of its 27 million people clinging to the coast while the red-dirt interior does its own thing.
A blue field with the Union Jack in the canton, a large white seven-pointed Commonwealth Star below it, and the five white stars of the Southern Cross at the fly. Six of the big star's points stand for the states and the seventh for the territories; the Southern Cross marks Australia's place in the southern sky.
Mauritania redenominated the ouguiya in 2018 at ten old units to one new one, so any amount written before that reads ten times too large today. It is the other currency that divides into five subunits instead of a hundred, which routinely surprises anyone expecting cents.
The exchange rate is set on the sending side - by the service the sender chooses in Australia - so the most useful thing a receiver can do happens before the transfer: share the live mid-market rate on this page so the sender can judge the margin in their quote. How the money arrives in Mauritania determines any local receiving charges - bank-to-bank transfers can pass through intermediary banks that deduct handling fees.
Sending rather than receiving? The sender’s view of this corridor covers the same rate from the other side. The AUD/MRU converter page handles any amount. Receiving money from overseas explains the process end to end.
Mauritania puts a ceiling on the size of a transfer that can move through a licensed provider, and it applies in both directions. Instruction n° 06/GR/2018 of the Banque Centrale de Mauritanie provides that the amount of an incoming or outgoing transfer operation must not exceed three hundred thousand ouguiyas. The article that follows closes the obvious way round it, applying the ceiling to any transaction executed in a single operation or in several operations between which a link appears to exist.
The same instruction describes the licensed activity in cash terms at both ends, defining a funds or value transmission service as one that accepts cash, cheques or any other payment instrument or store of value and pays an equivalent sum, in cash or in another form, to a beneficiary in another geographic location. Every provider must report monthly to the central bank, on the Bank's own template, each operation exceeding thirty thousand ouguiyas, and must apply risk-based measures when verifying any incoming or outgoing transfer.
Operating outside that regime is treated procedurally rather than tolerated. The instruction gives an unauthorised provider fifteen days to apply for authorisation, after which the central bank has recourse to the public authorities. Behind the licensed counters sits a shared network linking the head offices of financial institutions and the central bank over a fibre-optic infrastructure, connecting cash machines and payment terminals and onward to the international card schemes.
Sources: Banque Centrale de Mauritanie, Instruction n° 06/GR/2018 relative a l'autorisation des prestataires de services de transfert de fonds ou de valeurs · Banque Centrale de Mauritanie, Infrastructure de paiement
How much Mauritanian ouguiya will I receive in Mauritania?
A little less than the mid-market figures above. The service the sender uses in Australia sets the rate and fees; local receiving banks in Mauritania can also apply their own charges depending on how the transfer arrives.
The sender asked for my details - what will they need?
Whatever their transfer service asks for on the receiving side - typically your full legal name and local bank account details in Mauritania. Give the name exactly as your bank records it; mismatches are the most common reason a transfer is delayed.
Why did I receive less than the rate on this page suggests?
Retail rates are set away from the mid-market midpoint by a margin the provider keeps. Comparing a quote against the reference rate on this page is what makes that margin visible, since it is rarely stated as a fee. On a bank-to-bank transfer an intermediary bank can also deduct a handling charge in transit.