Nigeria appears to have advanced in Internet penetration, yet the speed is falling behind.
This is validated by the latest report from Ookla, a U.S.-based market research firm, in its latest Speedtest Global Index, which analysed mobile and fixed broadband performance in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region in 2025.

The report, released yesterday, shows that Nigeria’s Internet speed has taken a hit, slipping to 85th worldwide.
While Nigeria grapples with infrastructure bottlenecks, South Africa has pulled ahead to claim the top spot in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), highlighting a widening connectivity gap.

According to the mobile Speedtest Global Index, only three SSA countries made it to the top-100 list in December 2025 – South Africa (64th), Kenya (80th) and Nigeria (85th).
South Africa and Nigeria dropped five and seven places, respectively, with median download speeds of 65.7 Mbps and 44.14 Mbps by the end of the year. Kenya ranked 80th, recording a median download speed of 45.37 Mbps.

The picture is more complex, reflecting the great progress made by SSA in terms of fibre deployment and adoption. Côte d’Ivoire made the biggest progress in SSA, taking the 103rd position in December 2025, with a median download speed of 58.17 Mbps.

Omdia estimated that 10 per cent to 15 per cent of all country premises are covered with fibre to the premises (FTTP). While this is lower than other countries such as Senegal, South Africa and Kenya, it outperformed them in median download speed.

Ookla said this could be because the user base is concentrated on relatively higher speed connections. In fact, Orange, the leading internet service provider (ISP), offers entry-level fixed broadband packages starting at 50 Mbps.

Six other countries in SSA are in the top-120, with Mauritania recording the largest jump in 2025, moving 24 places to the 106th with a median download speed of 55.66 Mbps, just below Morocco.

The country expanded its backbone, adding 5,500 km of fibre, and planning to lay a total of 8,000 kilometres of additional lines by 2025 and beyond as part of the Mauritanian government’s Digital Agenda 2022-2025.

Interestingly, South Africa is the only country in the region where wholesale-only FTTP networks are common.
It noted that improvement in fixed and mobile network performance can result from several factors and initiatives led by telecom operators and supported by regulators. These can be categorised into seven groups, including network optimisation, architecture modernisation, technology evolution, infrastructure expansion, commercial migration, QoS regulations and strategic enablement.

The report claimed that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries maintained their pole position in the Middle East and Africa.

The UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman are the consistent leading countries in the MEA region in both fixed and mobile network performance, with most in the top-10 globally for mobile throughout 2025.