Freedom of expression is restricted and stagnant in Nigeria as Ghana remains the only country in the Sub-Saharan African with a fair rating in the region, according to a report by Global Expression Report for 2024.

The report ranked countries in the world between crisis and open – Sub-Saharan African countries including Nigeria with one-third of the population living in nine countries in the region sit in the middle of the scale (restricted).

The report noted that in the last 10 years, there has been a significant drop in the freedom of expression ranking in other regions of the world but there has been no significant change in Sub-Saharan Africa over that timeframe.

The report noted that over 216 million people across four countries in the region experienced a deterioration of their freedom of expression between 2022 and 2023 while the figures totalled to over 329 million across 14 countries in the last five years between 2018 and 2023.

Meanwhile, only 119 million people across four countries between 2018 and 2023 experienced improvements in their freedom of expression with Zambia recording the largest improvement of +32 points while Burkina Faso dropped the lowest with -31 points.

Ghana was the last country in Sub-Saharan Africa in the Open expression category in 2018 but has dropped to the Less Restricted category in the last six years, according to the report.