A new report from broadband intelligence firm Ookla has revealed significant variations in Starlink internet speeds across Sub-Saharan Africa, with Nigeria recording some of the slower speeds.

In the first quarter of 2025, Starlink users in Nigeria experienced an average download speed of 49.6 Mbps, while users in Botswana enjoyed much faster speeds averaging 106.4 Mbps.

Explaining the disparity, a spokesperson for Ookla attributed the slower Starlink speeds in Nigeria to network congestion, according to Nairametrics.

“Nigeria is arguably Starlink’s biggest market in Africa, so its network could be more congested than that in Botswana. The number of users connected to the same satellite can impact speeds,” he said.

It was earlier reported that as of Q3 2024, Elon Musk’s Starlink became the second-largest Internet Service Provider in Nigeria, with 65,564 active customers.

This marked a sharp rise from 23,897 subscribers at the end of 2023 — a growth of over 174% in just nine months.

Botswana led the continent with the fastest Starlink internet speed at 106.4 Mbps, followed closely by Eswatini at 86.2 Mbps and Rwanda at 85.5 Mbps.

Burundi recorded 79.5 Mbps, while Sierra Leone followed with 77.8 Mbps. Other countries also surpassing Nigeria in speed include Mozambique (75.7 Mbps), Ghana (75.1 Mbps), Malawi (71.3 Mbps), and Zambia (69.7 Mbps).

Countries recording lower Starlink speeds than Nigeria include Zimbabwe, South Sudan, Kenya, and Madagascar.

According to Ookla, signal strength and speed can be influenced by the number of satellites covering a location—more satellites generally result in better coverage and faster internet performance.

Ookla also noted that the quality and positioning of the Starlink satellite dish (terminal) can significantly impact performance.

Despite the variation in speeds across countries, the report highlighted that Starlink generally delivers faster internet than most terrestrial ISPs throughout Africa.

“According to Speedtest Intelligence, Starlink delivers substantially higher median download speeds than the overall median for other ISPs across all surveyed markets.

“For example, Starlink offers median speeds of 106.36 Mbps and 86.18 Mbps in Botswana and Eswatini, respectively—far exceeding the 9.36 Mbps and 13.6 Mbps provided by other ISPs.

“In Burundi and Mozambique, the Starlink-to-other-ISP download speed ratio is also high at 7.6 and 6.6, respectively. Even in Ghana and Rwanda, with the fastest median download speed for terrestrial ISPs at 44.66 Mbps and 44.15 Mbps in Q1 2025, respectively, Starlink outperformed them with 75.1 Mbps and 85.5 Mbps,” the report stated.

More broadly, Ookla reported that Starlink remains faster than other ISPs in countries like Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia—often by a factor of two to four.

However, in countries such as Ghana, Rwanda, and Madagascar, the speed advantage is narrower, with Starlink outperforming local ISPs by less than double.