A new report has ranked Kenya among the top ten best English-speaking nations on the continent, beating the likes of Nigeria, Ethiopia, Uganda and Morocco.
Education First (EF), the world's largest education company, which focuses on language training, in its English Proficiency Index (EPI) of 2025, ranked Kenya as the third-best English-speaking country in Africa.
The survey conducted last year ranked adult English language skills across 123 countries and regions worldwide, with the result based on over 2.2 million participants.
Out of the 2.2 million test takers who completed the EF Skills Evaluation Technology (EF SET), 46 per cent were male, while 54 per cent were female, with the average age of the interviewees being 26.
Continentally, South Africa took the lead as the country with the best proficiency in English, followed by Zimbabwe, Kenya in third and Zambia fourth.
Notably, English remains one of the most spoken languages in these countries, widely used in the governments of these nations, their education systems and the media.
English is widely used in Kenya since the country was a British colony, with the latter establishing its dialect as the official language during the colonial era.
Meanwhile, Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda come fifth, sixth and seventh respectively, followed by Ethiopia, Tunisia and Morocco in eighth, ninth and tenth place respectively.
Nigeria, Uganda and Ghana's strong showing of proficiency in English is mainly because the dialect serves as an official language in these nations. However, English remains unofficial in Ethiopia but is widely used in schools.
"English proficiency reflects a workforce's capacity to engage with the global economy beyond national boundaries. In economies transitioning toward knowledge-based sectors, comfort with English often signals adaptability to international standards," the report read in part.
Globally, Kenya was ranked 19th, with the Netherlands, Croatia, Australia and Germany emerging first, second, third and fourth, respectively, in English-speaking.
Other countries that also featured in the top ten globally are Norway, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium and Slovakia at fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth, respectively.
