African nations with smaller landmasses than Anambra State are outperforming Nigeria in internet speed, even as the country remains the continent’s most populous nation. With a speed of 27.62 megabits per second (Mbps), it ranks 132nd globally in Worldwide Broadband Speed Report by Cable.co.uk. This surpasses its 2025 target of 25 Mbps from the Nigerian National Broadband Plan. However, Nigeria lags behind Réunion at 63.29 Mbps, South Africa at 42.42 Mbps, Eswatini at 37.23 Mbps, Rwanda at 32.69 Mbps, Mauritius at 31.12 Mbps, and Botswana at 29.52 Mbps, despite Réunion and Mauritius having landmasses of just 2,512 km² and 2,040 km².
Despite Lagos having a larger area of 1,171 km², Réunion surpasses the country’s commercial capital in internet speed. In June 2024, Lagos recorded mobile speeds of 43.60 Mbps and fixed broadband speeds of 27.37 Mbps, according to the Speedtest Global Index by Ookla. Also, according to the report, downloading a 5GB movie takes 10 minutes 47 seconds in Réunion, 21 minutes 56 seconds in Mauritius, and 24 minutes 43 seconds in Nigeria, which covers an area of 923,768 km². While fast internet is crucial for modern activities, the country often struggles with slower speeds.
Slow internet services affect business and cause frustration nationwide.
The online network’s transformative impact on work, social interactions, and information sharing underscores the importance of faster online speeds. Abdulrazak Temiloluwa recounted his frustrating experience at the National Identity Management Commission (NIN) office, where he was asked to ‘exercise patience’ due to slow network speeds, resulting in a task that should have taken an hour consuming an entire day. Similarly, Ifeoma John, a Lagos-based legal practitioner, experienced delays in obtaining her driver’s license from the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) in 2023 due to sluggish online speeds. Even the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) faced weeks of delays in 2023 because network disruptions affected company registrations.
Chris Wood, the CEO of West Indian Ocean Cable Company, emphasised the need for consistent and dependable online connectivity for effective performance. In 2022, Surfshark’s Global Internet Value Index (IVi) revealed that people were overpaying for online services, ranking the country 109th out of 117 regarding speed and affordability. Despite the country’s status as a high-speed online hub in Africa with eight subsea cables, including Equiano, and Glo1, among others, Wood noted that effective last-mile delivery is necessary for the end-user experience to remain the same.
Access to fibre in remote areas will improve life and create jobs.
Also, the Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy emphasises fibre technology’s role in boosting bandwidth and speed through light pulses, overcoming traditional electronic signalling. Denis Fabregue, the project director of Réunion’s fibre deployment, noted that expanding fibre connectivity to remote areas enhances quality of life and creates jobs. Furthermore, the Ministry stresses affordable connectivity for economic growth, with 164.37 million internet subscriptions in the country by March 2024. However, only 39% live within 5 km of fibre networks, relying on base stations due to the absence of a 90,000 km fibre optic cable network.
Minister of Communications, Bosun Tijani, revealed that the country has introduced a $2 billion special-purpose vehicle (SPV) to address this deficit and boost its fibre capacity from 35,000 km to 125,000 km. His statement emphasised maximising the usage of the country’s nine submarine cables, which currently operate below 15% of their total capacity. The plan involves laying an extensive fibre network to facilitate fibre-to-base-station connections. According to the 2022 Annual Report from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the total length of land fibre deployed in the country is 49,367.20 kilometres.
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Ayotunde Coker, managing director of Open Access Data Centers (OADC), stressed the importance of fibre connectivity in reaching people with broadband access through any means necessary. According to Gbenga Adebayo, the head of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), state governments must own the country’s initiative to install 90,000 kilometres of fibre optic cables. State governments must stop viewing the right of way as a way to generate revenue. It is contradictory to discuss the digital Economy on the one hand and then view service providers as mere sources of income, as stated during the Sixth Edition of the Policy Implementation Assisted Forum.