Africa · Middle Africa · Sovereign state
Current time in Central African Republic
A single time zone at UTC+01:00.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
About Central African Republic's time
A single time zone.
The Central African Republic sits in the UTC+1 zone (known as West Africa Time, WAT) with no daylight saving time.
Major cities
Cities of Central African Republic.
History
How Central African Republic keeps time.
The Republic declared independence from France on 13 August 1960 and kept West Africa Time (WAT, UTC+1), which it had already used under French rule.
Before independence, the region that is now the Central African Republic used local mean time and later adopted UTC+1 as its standard through colonial rule and then independence. The adoption of WAT aligned the new nation with its geographic solar time and neighboring countries such as Chad and Cameroon.
Convert
Central African Republic to the world's clocks.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about Central African Republic's time zone, daylight saving rules, and how to handle it in software. Can't find what you need? Email [email protected].
- What timezone is the Central African Republic?
- The Central African Republic uses West Africa Time, which is UTC+1.
- Is Central African Republic observing daylight saving time?
- No, daylight saving time is not observed in the Central African Republic.
- What's the time difference between Central African Republic and UTC?
- The Republic is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC+1).
- How many time zones are there in the Central African Republic?
- There is only one time zone in the Republic.
Source: IANA tzdb2026d · Reviewed
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