According to new data released by the Internet Society, West African countries are making notable strides in digital development, with several countries in the region improving their Internet resilience.
This progress underscores the region’s growing commitment to enhancing digital infrastructure, security, and market readiness, ensuring more stable and accessible online services for millions.
The Internet Society’s Pulse Internet Resilience Index—which tracks key indicators such as infrastructure, performance, security, and market preparedness—reveals that West Africa’s overall Internet resilience score has climbed to 34%, marking a two-percentage-point increase between 2022 and 2023.
This upward trend translates into more reliable access to essential online services, including education, healthcare, and economic opportunities, reinforcing the Internet’s role as a key driver of development across the region.
Benin (39%) and Senegal (36%) secured impressive six- and ten-point increases between 2022 and 2023, the highest increases among African countries. This moved them into the second and fifth positions in West Africa.
“Senegal has changed remarkably over the last few years,” commented Ahmath Bamba Mbacke, president of Internet Society Senegal Chapter. “Over 60% of the population has access to the Internet, and at least 96% of Internet users have access to at least one device with 4G mobile Internet. 20% of users in Senegal can access online resources using IPv6, which is far above the average 7% for Africa. There are concerted efforts to improve upstream diversity to ensure that our in-country infrastructure can recover from unexpected events with the help of SENIX (Senegalese IXP) and keep our Internet stable and secure in the face of adversity.”
“There has been a marked effort to improve Internet infrastructure in Benin,” says Malick Alassane, Chair of Internet Society Benin Chapter.
“Strong foundations have been laid to continue improving Internet access, security, performance, and market readiness across the country to ensure that more people can take advantage of the social and economic benefits that strong, resilient, and stable Internet brings to the country and West Africa as a whole. The development of this environment and trusted infrastructures in our country has led, for example, to the emergence of new e-service platforms, now accessible in just one click, making life easier for citizens and businesses.”
Côte d’Ivoire continues to have the highest IRI score in the region (42%) and the sixth highest in Africa.
Although it didn’t experience any growth between 2022 and 2023, its score has increased by 12 points since 2019.
Benin, Burkina Faso (38%), Nigeria (38%), Senegal (36%), and Ghana (36%) round out the top six countries in West Africa. Niger (27%) was the only country in the region to experience a decrease in its Internet Resilience Index score for the past 12 months.
As the individual Pulse Country Reports show, these changes are driven by multiple factors, including investment in Internet infrastructure and security, increased usage of IPv6, enabling policies, and growing collaboration among governments, technology providers, and local communities.
An equally contributing factor is how much popular content is accessed through in-country servers and caches. Currently, Ghana has the highest percentage of the 1,000 most popular websites that its Internet users access locally (58%), followed by Togo (46%) and Nigeria (38%).
Benin, Cabo Verde, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Sierra Leone access between 96-100% of all their most popular content from outside the region.
The Internet Society is working with local partners in Benin, Burkina Faso, and Niger to increase this locally cached content figure to 50% by the end of 2025.
“Hosting popular content and local digital services within countries and regions is a cost-effective way to improve Internet performance and resilience,” says Michuki Mwangi, Internet Society Distinguished Technologist for Internet Growth.
“Importantly, the cost savings from not having to pay to access the content via international connections can be reinvested to improve the network or passed on to Internet users.”
Data centres and Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) help in this effort as they help store content closer to end users and create shorter, more direct routes for Internet traffic instead of sending and receiving it via expensive international links.
IXPs are Internet intersections, where networks connect locally to exchange traffic and help make the Internet faster and more affordable.
