Ghana’s internet cost ranked cheapest in West Africa

Internet cost in Ghana ranks the lowest in the West African sub-Region , while  internet speed has been ranked number one in Africa.

In a global index for fastest internet speeds, measured by Speedtest Global Index, Ghana’s internet was ranked ahead of South Africa and Egypt.

Ghana was ranked 79th in the world, with a speed of 53.28 mbps, which is the fastest in Africa.

South Africa placed 85th in the world and 2nd in Africa with a 47.32 mbps speed, while Egypt came 91st in the world and and 3rd in Africa with a speed of 42.42 mbps.

The global internet speed captured internet speeds in about 180 countries.

Ghana is currently on a massive digitization drive dubbed the Digital Ghana Agenda, where all government services are being digitized to be accessed via the Ghana.gov.gh portal. As a result, all stakeholders in the tech ecosystem have been on a drive to boost service quality to support the agenda.

Read also: Bank of Ghana announces digital cedi plans

Moreover, amid the Covid-19, the Ministry of Communications, through the National Communications Authority, released some free spectrum to the leading telecom service providers in the country to enable them carry the huge data traffic that came with the pandemic.

That resulted in the ability of industry players to maintain quality of service and prevent congestion even though data traffic grew exponentially across the ecosystem.

In a related development, it emerged that Ghana has the most affordable mobile internet in sub-Saharan Africa, a report on world mobile internet data pricing has revealed.

The report, put together by UK’s internet experts, CABLE.CO.UK, compared the cost of 1GB of mobile data across 6,148 mobile data plans in 230 countries.

The report ranks Ghana’s internet pricing the cheapest in West Africa and one of the cheapest in the world at an average price for 1GB mobile data at $0.66.

On the African continent, Ghana’s mobile internet data is ranked the 4th cheapest, behind Sudan, Algeria and Somalia.

Gambia’s mobile internet data is the most expensive, with an average pricing for 1GB data at $5.86, while Equatorial Guinea has the most expensive mobile internet data pricing in Africa with an average of $49.67 for 1GB of mobile data.