Nigeria has emerged as the seventh Sub-Saharan African country with the fastest internet speed as it recorded an average download speed of 27.62 Mbps.
This is according to the 2024 Worldwide Broadband Speed Report, which was released on Tuesday by Cable.co.uk. The broadband speed tests conducted across 220 countries, showed that Nigeria improved in global speed ranking, moving up from 133rd position in 2023 to 132nd in 2024.
In Africa, Nigeria came behind Réunion, South Africa, Eswatini, Rwanda, Mauritius, and Botswana, which ranked first to sixth in the continent. Réunion topped Sub-Saharan Africa with 63.29 Mbps average internet speed, while South Africa came second with 42.42 Mbps.
Average speed in Africa
According to the report, the average internet speed in Africa was 14.99 Mbps making Africa the region with the second-lowest internet speed globally.
“50 countries were measured in the second-slowest region Sub-Saharan Africa, which averaged a download speed of 14.99Mbps overall. All but two of the countries found themselves in the slowest half of the league table.
“Going against the trend somewhat were Réunion (63.29Mbps, 75th), South Africa (42.42Mbps, 114th), and Eswatini (37.23Mbps, 120th). Meanwhile, Sudan (4.02Mbps, 223rd), Central African Republic (4.08Mbps, 222nd), and Ethiopia (4.45Mbps, 221st) all fell among the slowest ten countries in the world for average network speed,” the report stated.
The global leaders
The report indicated that the analysis of around 1.5 billion broadband speed tests worldwide revealed that Iceland has the fastest broadband in the world. The country’s average internet speed stood at 279.55 Mbps, while Jersey, another Western European country, came second with 273.51 Mbps. An Asian country, Macao emerged the third in the world with 234.74 Mbps internet speed
According to the report, 35 countries failed to achieve average speeds of 10Mbps or greater, the speed deemed by UK telecoms watchdog Ofcom to be the minimum required to cope with the needs of a typical family or small business.
This is down from 48 countries in 2023, 67 countries in 2022, and 94 countries in 2021, indicating significant speed improvements are ongoing in many parts of the world.
What you should know
Nigeria is currently pushing to increase internet speed as well as increase the number of Nigerians with access through its National Broadband Plan (NBP 2020-2025). While some of the targets in the plan have already been missed, the country seems to be doing well in terms of the broadband speed targets.
According to the Plan, internet speed in Nigeria is expected to have reached 15Mbps download in the urban areas and 5Mbps in rural areas by 2023. The global report confirmed that the country has indeed exceeded this target with the 27.62Mbps recorded.
The improvement in internet speed, though still limited to major cities, could be attributed to the launch of 5G by MTN and Airtel. The entry of Elon Musk’s Starlink is also helping to boost internet access and speed in the country. According to users, Starlink currently delivers over 50Mbps in both urban and rural areas in Nigeria.