A new global study on digital quality of life has ranked Nigeria as one of the countries with the least affordable internet service in the world.

In its 2022 DQL index study, which Peoples Gazette obtained on Monday, Surfshark, a virtual private network provider, revealed that Nigeria was among the least developed nations in terms of internet affordability and costs.

According to the report, Nigerians spend about 36 hours and 13 minutes of their work time monthly to be able to afford cheap fixed broadband packages.

“Fixed broadband costs Nigeria’s citizens around 36 hours 13 minutes of their precious working time each month. To afford it, Nigerians have to work 112 times more than Israeli citizens, for whom the most affordable package costs only 19 min of work monthly,” the report read.

The survey explained that Nigerians now have to put in an additional 40 minutes of work per month compared to 2021 when they spent 35 hours monthly in order to afford fixed broadband internet access.

Also, Nigeria’s internet quality despite having considerable improvements ranked below its African peers such as Egypt, Angola, and South Africa.

The report detailed that Nigeria’s current internet quality ranked 26 per cent below global average.

“Nigeria’s internet quality, considering internet speed, stability, and growth, ranks 99th in the world and is 26% worse than the global average. Regarding internet speed alone, Nigeria’s mobile internet ranks higher than fixed broadband in the global ranking, operating at 25.2 Mbps/s (92nd globally). Meanwhile, the fixed broadband internet comes 102nd (18.9 Mbps/s),” the report said.

“Since last year, mobile internet speed in Nigeria has improved by 10.8% (2.5 Mbps), and fixed broadband speed has grown by 15.9% (2.6 Mbps). In comparison, Singapore’s residents enjoyed mobile speeds up to 104 Mbps/s and fixed to as much as 261 Mbps/s – that’s the fastest internet in the world this year.”

In February 2021, Peoples Gazette reported that the DQL study for 2020 ranked Nigeria as the country with the least affordable internet service in the world.

The Gazette reported that Nigerians have to work 27 minutes 55 seconds to afford one gigabyte of mobile internet against the global average of 10 minutes.

Nigeria’s Digital Quality of Life DQL worsened in 2021, with the country’s internet speed ranking among one of the slowest in the world at 13.45Mbps for broadband connections and 17.91Mbps for mobile internet.