Zimbabwe Now Africa’s 2nd Largest Starlink Market After Nigeria Hits 91,000

Zimbabwe is now Africa’s 2nd largest Starlink subscriber with 67 000 subscribers closely  following Nigeria with 92 000, however if we are to compare against national population, Zimbabwe has the largest national Starlink coverage in Africa

Nigeria’s population is estimated to be approximately 242.4 million people in 2026 with Internet and data penetration in Nigeria having surged to 148.2 million active users, achieving a 68.3% national penetration rate.

However Zimbabwe with only a total population of 17 million nationals has national  data or internet penetration rate increased to 84.55% in the fourth quarter of 2025, up from 82.87% in the previous quarter, registering 13.25 million total connected citizens . 

This makes 67 000 of the 13 million connected subscribers a very big number, compared to a paltry 92 000 Nigerians of the 148 million connected subscribers.

• This has been mainly driven by prior expensive internet services forcing subscribers to jump to alternative service providers , a move that has greatly forced a market disruption in Zimbabwe and Nigeria as ISPs review their tariffs

Nigeria has firmly entrenched itself as the largest market for Starlink in Africa, with the satellite internet provider recording massive subscriber growth to close 2025 just shy of the 92,000-user mark.

According to the latest Internet Service Provider (ISP) statistics released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for the fourth quarter of 2025, Starlink’s active subscriber base surged to 91,991.

This growth not only secures its position as the continent’s leading market for Elon Musk’s low-earth orbit (LEO) service, but also cements Starlink as the second-largest fixed internet provider in Nigeria, trailing only Spectranet, which holds roughly 108,500 active users.

The Nigerian market has heavily embraced the satellite provider since it became the first African country to activate the service in early 2023.

Between the end of the second quarter and the end of 2025, Starlink added over 25,000 new Nigerian terminals. The figures highlight a growing reliance on satellite solutions to bypass the infrastructure limitations of terrestrial fibre networks, especially for enterprise and high-income residential consumers.

While Nigeria maintains the absolute lead, it is facing aggressive competition for the top spot from an unexpected contender: Zimbabwe.

Despite launching much later in September 2024, Zimbabwe has witnessed a phenomenal rate of adoption. Data from the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) shows the Southern African nation closed Q4 2025 with a record 67,057 active VSAT users the regulatory category under which Starlink operates.

Zimbabwe added over 16,100 new terminals in the final three months of the year alone, representing a 31.7% quarterly jump. This explosive growth places Zimbabwe in a dead heat with where Nigeria was just six months prior, and makes Zimbabwe the undisputed leader in the SADC region.

Unlike Nigeria’s primarily retail and enterprise-driven growth, Zimbabwe’s rapid scaling has been heavily subsidised by the state. A significant portion of its Q4 surge was driven by for example, the government’s Presidential Internet Scheme, which deployed 8,000 Starlink kits to rural and underserved public schools.

The dual dominance of Nigeria and Zimbabwe highlights a shifting landscape in Africa’s fixed-broadband sector. Across the continent, legacy ISPs are losing ground to the immediate, high-speed connectivity offered by Starlink. In Nigeria, for instance, the top three ISPs (Spectranet, Starlink, and FibreOne) now control nearly 70% of the entire fixed-internet market, squeezing out hundreds of smaller, localised providers.

Despite these two localised booms, Starlink’s broader African footprint remains in its infancy. Across the 26 African nations where it is currently active, the service maintains approximately 275,000 total subscribers. This represents roughly 3% of the company’s 10 million global users.