Nigeria trailed behind Réunion, South Africa, Eswatini, Rwanda, Mauritius, and Botswana to emerge seventh in a ranking of Sub-Saharan African countries with the fastest internet speed.

This is according to the 2024 Worldwide Broadband Speed Report published on Tuesday by Cable.co.uk.

The report showed that Nigeria recorded an average download speed of 27.62 megabits per second.

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, Réunion topped Sub-Saharan Africa with 63.29 Mbps average internet speed, while South Africa came second with 42.42 Mbps.

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.

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),” the report said.

The development is coming as the Nigerian government struggles to achieve its National Broadband Plan (NBP) 2020-2025, championed by the Nigerian Communications Commission.

Though the country targets 70 per cent broadband penetration by 2025, it has achieved only 43.7 per cent as of December 2023.