Rwanda Has the Highest Internet Speed in Africa: Here’s Why 

Rwanda has been ranked as the African country with the highest internet speed because of its investment in network infrastructure, liberalisation of the telecoms sector, and the deployment of fibre optic networks to households and businesses.

The ranking according to the Speedtest Global Index by Ookla showed that Rwanda moved up 47 places in fixed broadband speeds. It explained that Rwanda’s internet penetration stood at 60.6% by the close of 2022, with its international bandwidth capacity rising by 29.4%.

Ookla stressed that Rwanda’s liberalisation of the telecoms sector created room for more competition, which led to improved services and lower costs. The liberalisation ensured that 114 fixed broadband licenses were granted to internet service providers—including Liquid Telecom and mobile network operators, MTN and Airtel—between 2021 and 2022.

Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) in its annual report noted that the liberalization also enabled the expansion of the fiber optic network to the households and corporate services in the City of Kigali, Musanze, and Rubavu.

Furthermore, the report hampered the need for individuals and organizations to invest in network infrastructure to improve internet speeds in Africa. 

Asides from the great performance of Rwanda, other African countries also recorded significant improvement in their internet speeds. They include Malawi, which moved up nine positions. Djibouti and Congo both rose seven slots. 

Mauritius, Lesotho, and Guinea all improved by five places. Burkina Faso significantly moved up 22 places, while Botswana and Uganda climbed 15 spots each.

Among Africa’s largest economies, Nigeria rose by one position to 92, and Kenya rose by five slots to 87 in their mobile internet speeds rankings. However, Egypt and South Africa saw their mobile rankings fall by six and nine slots respectively, to positions 91 and 64.

Despite falls in their mobile rankings, both Egypt and South Africa saw their fixed broadband internet speed increase, moving to 84 and 97 respectively.