Current time in Dakar, Senegal
The current local time in Dakar is shown below. Dakar observes GMT.
What's the daylight saving status?
Dakar does not observe daylight saving time. The local offset is fixed year-round.
When are sunrise & sunset today?
What are the timezone facts?
- Timezone
- Africa/Dakar
- Standard abbreviation
- GMT
- Observes daylight saving
- No
- Country
- 🇸🇳 Senegal
- Business hours
- 09:00 – 17:00 local
What's the timezone history of Dakar?
Senegal keeps Greenwich Mean Time at UTC+0 year-round, the same offset as London in winter, but its far-western position tells in the sky: at around 17 degrees west, Dakar's solar noon falls well after one o'clock by the civil clock, so the sun runs more than an hour behind the wall time. This is the widest such gap of any major African city on this offset, the opposite of Accra further east, where clock and sun nearly coincide.
What are the working hours in Dakar?
The week runs Monday to Friday with Saturday mornings common, and the Friday midday prayers are widely observed in this overwhelmingly Muslim country, lengthening the break that day. Government, port logistics, fishing, and a growing digital-services sector anchor the economy. The two Eid festivals, known locally as Korité and Tabaski, are the largest annual holidays, their dates moving earlier each year against the Gregorian calendar, and the Grand Magal pilgrimage to Touba draws much of the country for several days. The fishing fleet and the port keep their own early rhythm, out before dawn.
Where is Dakar?
Dakar occupies the Cap-Vert peninsula on the Atlantic coast, the westernmost point of continental Africa, jutting out toward the Americas. The metropolitan area holds around 4 million people on a narrow, crowded headland. As the capital of Senegal and the former capital of French West Africa, it has long been the region's principal Atlantic port and a hub for trade and government across the surrounding francophone countries, with the historic island of Gorée lying just offshore.