# Time in Africa

Africa, the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, spans across six different time zone offsets from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC): UTC−01:00 to UTC+04:00. As Africa straddles the equator and tropics, there is little change in daylight hours throughout the year and as such daylight saving time is currently observed in only two countries, Morocco and Egypt. However, it was previously observed in several other countries.
Before the wide adoption of standard time zones, local mean time was widely used in railway time for train timetables and telegraphic time for telegraphy. Local mean time is a solar time that corrects the variations of local apparent time by forming a uniform time scale at a specific longitude; for instance, Liberia observed UTC−0:44:30 instead of an approximate offset such as UTC−01:00. British Rhodesia (at the time administered by the private British South Africa Company) was the first area in Africa to adopt standard time, switching to UTC+02:30 on 1 August 1899 as the previous time standards proved problematic for the railway system. Other countries followed suit, and by 1912, most Portuguese, French and British territories had adopted a standard offset. Liberia was the last country in Africa to adopt a standard offset, doing so on 7 January 1972.
Names for the offsets vary by country and jurisdiction: in Africa, UTC+01:00 is commonly known as "West Africa Time", however Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia designate the offset by its European name, "Central European Time"; UTC+02:00 – commonly known as "Central Africa Time" – is designated as "South African Standard Time" by Eswatini, Lesotho and South Africa, whilst Egypt and Libya designate it by its European name "Eastern European Time". Cape Verde is the only country in Africa which observes UTC−01:00, where it is known as Cape Verde Time (CVT); thirteen countries observe UTC±00:00, fourteen observe UTC+01:00, sixteen observe UTC+02:00, nine observe UTC+03:00, and two (Mauritius and Seychelles) observe UTC+04:00, where the offset is designated as Mauritius Time (MUT) and Seychelles Time (SCT) respectively.

## History

Before the wide adoption of standard time zones, local mean time, which is a solar time that corrects the variations of local apparent time by forming a uniform time scale at a specific longitude, such as railway time for train timetables and telegraphic time for telegraphy, was widely used. Due to the large size of the British company rule in Rhodesia, it meant Rhodesia observed three standards of time: UTC+01:30, +2:15 and +2:30; this was problematic for the railway system, so on 1 August 1899 the standard time zones UTC+02:30 was adopted nationwide, consequently resulting in this being the first standard time in Africa. This would soon be followed by Egypt, which adopted standard time on 1 October 1900; Nigeria adopted standard time on 1 July 1905, Seychelles in 1906, Mauritius on 1 January 1907, Togo in 1907, Algeria on 11 March 1911 and Tunisia on 12 April 1911. Most Portuguese territories (including Cape Verde and Mozambique) adopted standard time on 26 May 1911, followed by most remaining French and British territories on 1 July 1911 and 1 January 1912. The Gambia adopted standard time in 1918. Liberia was the last country in Africa to adopt a standard offset, doing so on 7 January 1972. The latest time change was South Sudan, which switched from UTC+3 to +2 on 1 February 2021.

## Daylight saving time

As Africa straddles the equator and tropics, there is little change in daylight hours throughout the year and as such daylight saving time (DST) is currently observed in only one country, Morocco, however it was also previously observed in several other countries: the countries that formerly observed DST are South Africa, which last observed it in 1944, Cape Verde in 1945, Madagascar in 1954, Ghana in 1956, Sierra Leone in 1962, Algeria and Chad in 1980, Sudan in 1985, Tunisia in 2008, Mauritius in 2009, Libya in 2012, Egypt in 2015, and Namibia in 2017. Since 2019, Morocco has observed UTC+01:00 year round except during the month of Ramadan, when it switches to UTC±00:00 as to not interfere with the month's fasting (sawm).

## Time zones

| Country | Time zone | Abbr. | Adopted | zone.tab |
| UTC−01:00 – Cape Verde Time |||||
| Cape Verde | Cape Verde Time | CVT | 26 May 1911 | Atlantic/Cape Verde |
| UTC±00:00 – Greenwich Mean Time |||||
| Burkina Faso | Greenwich Mean Time | GMT | 1 January 1912 | Africa/Ouagadougou |
| Côte d'Ivoire | Greenwich Mean Time | GMT | 1 January 1911 | Africa/Abidjan |
| The Gambia | Greenwich Mean Time | GMT | 1918 | Africa/Banjul |
| Ghana | Greenwich Mean Time | GMT | 2 November 1915–31 January 1942 24 October 1945 (readopted) | Africa/Accra |
| Guinea | Greenwich Mean Time | GMT | 1 January 1912 | Africa/Conakry |
| Guinea-Bissau | Greenwich Mean Time | GMT | 1 January 1912 | Africa/Bissau |
| Liberia | Greenwich Mean Time | GMT | 7 January 1972 | Africa/Monrovia |
| Mali | Greenwich Mean Time | GMT | 1 July 1911 | Africa/Bamako |
| Mauritania | Greenwich Mean Time | GMT | 1 January 1912 | Africa/Nouakchott |
| São Tomé and Príncipe | Greenwich Mean Time | GMT | 1 January 1912–1 January 2018 1 January 2019 (readopted) | Africa/Sao Tome |
| Senegal | Greenwich Mean Time | GMT | 1 January 1912 | Africa/Dakar |
| Sierra Leone | Greenwich Mean Time | GMT | 1939 | Africa/Freetown |
| Togo | Greenwich Mean Time | GMT | 1907 | Africa/Lome |
| UTC+01:00 – West Africa Time |||||
| Algeria | Central European Time | CET | 11 March 1911 – 25 February 1940 7 October 1946 – 29 January 1956 14 April 1963 – 21 October 1977 May 1981 | Africa/Algiers |
| Angola | West Africa Time | WAT | 1 January 1912 | Africa/Luanda |
| Benin | West Africa Time | WAT | 1 January 1912 | Africa/Porto-Novo |
| Cameroon | West Africa Time | WAT | 1 January 1912 | Africa/Douala |
| Central African Republic | West Africa Time | WAT | 1 January 1912 | Africa/Bangui |
| Chad | West Africa Time | WAT | 1 January 1912 | Africa/Ndjamena |
| Democratic Republic of the Congo (western side) | West Africa Time | WAT | 1 January 1912 | Africa/Kinshasa |
| Equatorial Guinea | West Africa Time | WAT | 1968 | Africa/Malabo |
| Gabon | West Africa Time | WAT | 1 January 1912 | Africa/Libreville |
| Morocco | Central European Time | CET | 27 October 2018 | Africa/Casablanca |
| Niger | West Africa Time | WAT | 1 January 1912 | Africa/Niamey |
| Nigeria | West Africa Time | WAT | 1 July 1905–1 July 1908 1 September 1919 (readopted) | Africa/Lagos |
| Republic of the Congo | West Africa Time | WAT | 1 January 1912 | Africa/Brazzaville |
| Tunisia | Central European Time | CET | 12 April 1911 | Africa/Tunis |
| UTC+02:00 – Central Africa Time |||||
| Botswana | Central Africa Time | CAT | 1984 | Africa/Gaborone |
| Burundi | Central Africa Time | CAT | 1968 | Africa/Bujumbura |
| Democratic Republic of the Congo (eastern side) | Central Africa Time | CAT | 1 January 1912 | Africa/Lubumbashi |
| Egypt | Eastern European Time | EET | 1 October 1900 | Africa/Cairo |
| Eswatini | South African Standard Time | SAST | 1 March 1903 | Africa/Mbabane |
| Lesotho | South African Standard Time | SAST | 1 March 1903 | Africa/Maseru |
| Libya | Eastern European Time | EET | 5 November 2012 | Africa/Tripoli |
| Malawi | Central Africa Time | CAT | 26 August 1966 | Africa/Blantyre |
| Mozambique | Central Africa Time | CAT | 1903 (de facto) 26 May 1911 (de jure) | Africa/Maputo |
| Namibia | Central Africa Time | CAT | 10 November 1993 | Africa/Windhoek |
| Rwanda | Central Africa Time | CAT | 1922 | Africa/Kigali |
| South Africa | South African Standard Time | SAST | 1 March 1903 | Africa/Johannesburg |
| South Sudan | Central Africa Time | CAT | 1 February 2021 | Africa/Juba |
| Sudan | Central Africa Time | CAT | 1931–15 January 2000 1 November 2017 (readopted) | Africa/Khartoum |
| Zambia | Central Africa Time | CAT | 1924 | Africa/Lusaka |
| Zimbabwe | Central Africa Time | CAT | 8 July 1899 | Africa/Harare |
| UTC+03:00 – East Africa Time |||||
| Comoros | East Africa Time | EAT | 1 July 1911 | Indian/Comoro |
| Djibouti | East Africa Time | EAT | 1 July 1911 | Africa/Djibouti |
| Eritrea | East Africa Time | EAT | 24 May 1993 | Africa/Asmara |
| Ethiopia | East Africa Time | EAT | 17 August 1942 | Africa/Addis Ababa |
| Kenya | East Africa Time | EAT | 31 July 1942 | Africa/Nairobi |
| Madagascar | East Africa Time | EAT | 1 July 1911 | Indian/Antananarivo |
| Somalia | East Africa Time | EAT | 1 July 1911 | Africa/Mogadishu |
| Tanzania | East Africa Time | EAT | 21 January 1929–1 January 1936 1 August 1942 (readopted) | Africa/Dar es Salaam |
| Uganda | East Africa Time | EAT | 23 July 1976 | Africa/Kampala |
| UTC+04:00 – Mauritius Time; Seychelles Time |||||
| Mauritius | Mauritius Time | MUT | 1 January 1907 | Indian/Mauritius |
| Seychelles | Seychelles Time | SCT | 1906 | Indian/Mahe |