African countries smaller in area than Anambra state and slightly larger than Lagos have faster internet speeds than Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country, Reports revealed.
According to the 2024 World Broadband Speed Report, a Cable.co.uk study ranking 220 countries, Nigeria’s internet speed ranks 132nd in the world with 27.62 megabits per second (Mbps).
The country’s current internet speeds exceed the 2025 target of 25 Mbps set in the Nigerian National Broadband Plan 2020-2025 but lag behind South Africa, Reunion (42.42 Mbps), Eswatini (37.23 Mbps), Rwanda (32,69 Mbps), Mauritius, and Botswana (29.,52 Mbps).
Reunion, with an area of 2,512 km², has an internet speed of 63.29 Mbit/s, while in 5th place with an area of 2,040 km², Mauritius, has an internet speed of 31.12 Mbit/s.
Nigeria’s 27.62 Mbps is small compared to the internet speeds of these countries.
The land area of these countries pales in comparison to Anambra’s 4,844 km². Reunion has a larger land area than Lagos (1,171 km²), but beats the internet speed of Nigeria’s commercial capital with 43.60 Mbps on mobile and 27.37 Mbps on mobile, according to Ookla’s Speedtest Global Index of fixed broadband recorded in June 2024.
According to the Worldwide Broadband Speed Report, a 5GB movie can be downloaded in 10 minutes 47 seconds in Reunion and 21 minutes 56 seconds in Mauritius, but in Nigeria (land area 923,768 km²) it takes 24 minutes 43 seconds.
The internet has revolutionized the way people work, interact, and share information. Experts say high-speed internet is essential for a smooth online process, but that is not always the case in Nigeria.
“Our network has been slow,” an official from the National Identity Management Commission told Nigerian national Abdulrazak Temiloluwa.
Temiloluwa, who had visited the office multiple times to change his National Identification Number (NIN) details to renew his expired passport, was asked to ‘exercise patience’. Speaking on this issue, she said “I had to wait for a whole day because I needed to change my information. What shouldn’t have lasted up to an hour lasted the whole day.”
Temiloluwa’s experience is not an isolated case. Lagos lawyer Ifeoma John tried to get a driver’s license from the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) in 2023. What should have taken around a month was a process that took longer due to slow internet speeds.
In 2023, the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) postponed company registration activities by several weeks due to network outages. “Reliable, stable internet connections are needed for people to do their jobs properly,” said Chris Wood, CEO of the Western Indian Ocean Cable Company.
Amsterdam-based cybersecurity firm Surfshark has revealed in its Global Internet Value Index (IVi) that Nigerians were overpaying for internet connection in 2022. The company calculates the index by dividing each country’s internet speed by affordability, and Nigeria ranks 109th out of 117 countries.
Nigeria’s index was 0.0017, 44 times lower than the global average. Nigeria has the highest number of submarine cables among the six African countries, highlighting the untapped capacity of high-speed internet.
However, eight submarine cables, including Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), Equiano, Glo1, MainOne, Nigeria Cameroon Submarine Cable System, SAT-3, WACS, and 2Africa, bring high-speed internet capacity to the country’s shores.
But “If it does not have a way to get to the end user, then there will be no change in the end-user experience,” Chris Wood explained.
Nigeria’s Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy says the fibre optic network is key. “Fibre technology, in this case, will enable significantly higher bandwidth capacity and speed. This is because optical fibre carries data as light pulses, thereby avoiding the electronic signaling limitations of traditional mediums,” he revealed.
Reunion’s high-speed internet is based on a fibre optic connection that can reach even remote areas.
“It is clear that fibre contributes to improving the quality of life of our citizens” and “it allows for the creation of more jobs and businesses.” Denis Fabregue, the Island nation’s fiber deployment project manager, said in a report,
According to the Nigerian Ministry of Communications, reliable and affordable connectivity is essential for economic growth, job creation, and social mobility. As of March 2024, there are 164.37 million internet subscriptions in the country.
However, only 39 percent of Nigeria’s population lives within 5 km of a fiber optic network. Nigeria has a 90,000 km fiber optic cable gap, and its connectivity relies on base stations that cover a wide transmission area.
To fill this gap, the country has launched a $2 billion special purpose vehicle to increase fiber capacity from 35,000 km to 125,000 km, Communications Minister Bosun Tijani said.
He said, “This project aims to utilize Nigeria’s nine submarine cables more effectively, as currently, we are not using even 15 percent of their capacity. By laying this extensive fibre network, we aim to enable fibre-to-base-station connections.” The country has 49,367.20km.
“Fiber is essential. The goal is to get broadband to people in any way possible,” stressed Ayotunde Coker, Managing Director of the Open Access Data Centre (OADC).
Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Carriers of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, said state governments must take responsibility for Nigeria’s 90,000km fibre optic installation programme.
“This issue of state governments seeing right of way as internally generated revenue (IGR) should be a thing of the past. We can’t talk about the digital economy on one side, and the government is seeing those who provide the services as sources of revenue,” he said at the 6th Policy Implementation Support Forum.
