SpaceX has announced that Starlink is now available in Nigeria. Elon Musk’s company took to Twitter to announce the big news.
Starlink is now available in Nigeria – the first African country to receive service! → https://t.co/slZbTmZmAt
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 30, 2023
According to the Nigerian Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, Nigeria now has 100 per cent broadband coverage across the country.
Per Nairametrics, Pantemi said this:
Based on the National Broadband Plan, we were to have 90% broadband coverage by December 2025. However, we recently gave a license to Starlink to provide services and this has given us 100% coverage, about 3 years ahead of schedule.
Per Starlink, the satellite internet service will cost 19,260 NGN (~$56 CAD) per month, and the hardware will cost 268,584 NGN (~$779) for the initial set-up.
To put that into perspective, the service costs about $56 CDN per month, and the hardware costs about $780 CDN, showing that SpaceX is keeping true to their word that the service will cost the same around the world when taking into account various exchange rates.
The service will be available across the country, but its monthly cost does make it a costly service for everyday Nigerians. SpaceX did not provide pre-order numbers in the country, nor have they announced how many customers have since signed up.
Either way, it is big news that Starlink has finally landed in Africa and could signal an incoming avalanche of announcements for other countries on the continent in the coming months.
