12 African Countries With The Slowest Broadband Speeds

It is no secret that countries with the slowest broadband speeds globally have a distinct disadvantage over others with regards to development and business capabilities.

New research from British company Cable, a broadband, TV and phone comparison firm, looked at over 63 million broadband speed tests across the globe to determine the slowest broadband speeds based on country averages.

The research took into account 189 countries, including most African nations ranking them from first to last with regards to average speeds that users experience in those countries.

Singapore ranks as the world’s fastest country with speeds of 55.13Mbps (megabyte per second), while Yemen is in last place in the ranking at an average speed of only 0.34Mbps. By comparison, the U.S. placed 21st at 20Mbps in the rankings.

Here are the 12 African countries with the slowest broadband speeds.

Sources: Cable, TechCentral, Businesstech, AllAfrica, VOANews.

12) Cameroon

Cameroon recently experienced a shutdown of the internet in the country due to protests from English-speaking parts of Cameroon, but the Central African nation does not enjoy fast speeds when users in the country are online, with average speeds of around 0.97Mbps, similar to the speeds in Nepal and Reunion.

11) Reunion

The Indian Ocean island of reunion registers similar speeds to Cameroon at 0.97Mbps, making it the 11th slowest nation in Africa in terms of broadband. This is in contrast to fellow Indian Ocean island, Seychelles, which enjoys Africa’s second fastest broadband speeds.

10) Malawi

Starting out the top 10 is Malawi, with broadband speeds averaging around 0.92Mbps, similar to speeds experienced in countries including Pakistan and Bolivia. Poor infrastructure development is a major factor in these slow speeds.

9) Libya

Internet users in Libya experience slow speeds relative to the rest of Africa, with the North African state recording an average broadband speed of around 0.89Mbps, making it the ninth slowest African nation on this list.

8) Guinea

The people of Guinea are among the poorest in West Africa and this is reflected in the development of the country’s internet infrastructure, leading to slow speeds such as the average 0.84Mbps experienced by users in Guinea.

7) Mali

Mali is the seventh slowest in terms of African internet speeds, and 14th slowest on the global list. Cables records the average broadband speed in Mali as 0.84Mbps, the same speed recorded for Guinea.

6) Benin

Internet users in Benin struggle with slow average broadband speeds, with a 0.73Mbps line emerging as the typical speed in the West African nation. This is just slightly better than Congo, but just behind Uzbekistan and Paraguay on 0.76Mbps and 0.75Mbps respectively.

5) Congo

Better than Venezuela at the last count, but not by too much, Congo is able to offer internet users an average internet speed of 0.72Mbps, which would mean that downloading a 7.5GB movie would take just short of an entire day.

4) Somalia

Somalia begins a disappointing group of four African nations that place among the five slowest internet speeds on this particular list. The East Africans are fourth last in Africa, and fifth last globally with speeds averaging 0.62Mbps.

3) DR Congo

The third slowest internet speeds on the African continent belong to the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 0.55Mbps recorded as lower than the averages available in Vanuatu and Syria.

2) Burkina Faso

West African nation Burkina Faso is Africa’s second last in the list of the slowest broadband speeds, with an average internet speed of 0.49Mbps, which would take users around a day and 11 hours to download a 7.5GB movie.

1) Gabon

Gabon has the unfortunate distinction of experiencing the slowest average broadband speeds in Africa, and they are only second last to Yemen on the world stage. With incredibly slow average speeds of 0.34Mbps, users in Gabon would take just under a day and 18 hours to download a 7.5GB movie.