• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Nigeria lags behind Cameroon, Senegal, Ghana on internet speed

Nigeria lags behind Cameroon, Senegal, Ghana on internet speed

Nigeria is now ranked 103rd for mobile and 146th for fixed broadband on the monthly Speedtest Global Index, behind Cameroon, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Liberia.

For mobile Internet speed, the index showed Nigeria lagging behind Cameroon with 16 percentage points. Ranked 87 in the world, Cameroon has the fourth fastest Internet speed in Africa, behind South Africa (51); Morocco (60); and Tunisia (75). Senegal, a West African country, is also ahead of Nigeria in mobile broadband. Senegal ranked 100th, and 10th in Africa.

Nigeria is also lags behind in fixed broadband speed. With a paltry 14.92Mbps, Nigeria is ranked 146 in the world out of 177 countries, and falls behind Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cape Verde, Gabon, Western Sahara, Mali, and Liberia.

Adriane Blum, vice president, marketing and communications, Ookla, says factors that can increase the speed of a network vary widely, but a primary one is investments in infrastructure and network optimization from operators.

Read Also: Airtel is Nigerias fastest mobile operator in first quarter 2021

“Other factors at the network level ( e. g. geographical considerations, network congestion, etc) and at the personal level (e.g. what devices are being used to connect to a network, number of people trying to use a network for high bandwidth at a single time, etc) also contribute heavily,” Blum said in a note to BusinessDay.

Ghana has the fastest fibre broadband internet in Africa with 47.89Mbps and ranked 77th in Ghana. Following closely is another West African country, Ivory Coast, with 47.77Mbps and ranked 78th in the world.

“I used to leave South Africa and come to Ghana to work because the Internet in South Africa was worse than Ghana,” said Victor Asemota, founder of Swiftcorp.

Other countries in Africa above Nigeria include South Africa (88); Egypt (94); Senegal (101); Madagascar (103); Seychelles (107); Morocco (112); Cape Verde (119); Kenya (125); Gabon (126); Western Sahara (127); Mali (128); Togo (131); Mauritius (133); Tanzania (134); Rwanda (135); Namibia (139); Djibouti (138); Liberia (139); Libya (140); Somalia (141); and Lesotho (143).

Although no African country is yet to reach the global average of 98.67Mbps, Nigeria at 14Mbps is barely 15 percent, indicating the country is way off the track in providing high speed internet to its citizens. Nigeria currently has the largest number of active Internet users in Africa with about 97 million subscribers.

The deployment of fibre Internet infrastructure in Nigeria has stalled to less than 1 percent of investments in the telecommunication sector. The fastest fixed broadband provider in the country, ipnx only scores an Internet speed of 18.00Mbps and lacks presence in many parts of the country.

Blum says delivering faster speeds across the country is a function of States and other government bodies collaborating with operators in service in different ways.

“But one is investing in broadband mapping to reveal where internet accessibility is and is not available. Making investments to help underserved areas receive internet access at the government level can go a long way to bridging the digital divide,” she said.