The regional climate model RegCM3 has been used to assess optical properties and clear-sky direct radiative forcing (DRF) of mineral dust and carbonaceous aerosols over West Africa for the period October 2005 to April 2006. Our results display a significant seasonal variation of the aerosol single scattering albedo (SSA) due to varying contributions from biomass burning (BB) and dust. During December-January, simulated SSA values dropped to around 0.81-0.83 at 440 nm and to 0.80-0.85 at 675 nm when absorbing aerosols from biomass burning dominate the mixture. During March and April, when mineral dust dominates, simulated SSA values increased reaching around 0.90-0.92 at 440 nm and 0.94-0.96 at 675 nm. The simulated aerosol optical thickness (AOT) was maximum over central Africa where it far exceeded estimates of AOT from satellite which showed the greatest AOT in the gulf of Guinea. This discrepancy was linked to an overestimation of BB emissions in central Africa and a possible underestimation of AOT over central Africa due a high occurrence of cloud and associated difficulties in cloud screening. The DRF calculations were extremely sensitive to aerosol optical properties and underlying surface albedo. Over dark surfaces, the sum of shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) top of the atmosphere (TOA) direct radiative forcing averaged from December to February was negative (−5.25 to −4.0 W/m2) while over bright surfaces it was close to zero (−0.15 W/m2). Large differences between SW surface and SW TOA direct radiative forcing indicated that SW absorption had an important influence on the radiative budget. The SW radiative heating rate associated with the aerosol reached 1.2 K/d at local noon (diurnal mean of 0.40 K/d) over Niamey (∼13.5°N, 2°E) and peaked at altitudes of 2-4 km, corresponding to the BB aerosol layer.