Africa for Digital Nomads

Monthly costs are what one person spends living comfortably: a one-bedroom flat on a monthly lease, eating out often, a coworking desk, transport and a social life.

• The established hub: Cape Town, with mountains, beaches, wine country, the biggest community and South Africa’s remote work visa.
• Surf and sun near Europe: Taghazout in Morocco, with surf-and-cowork camps three to four hours’ flight from most of Western Europe, and Dakar in Senegal.
• Culture and winter sun: Marrakesh, for souks, riads and the Atlas Mountains.
• Diving and low costs: Dahab on Egypt’s Red Sea, one of the cheapest bases anywhere.
• Beach islands: Zanzibar and Mauritius, which has one of the easiest long-stay visas in the world.
• Tech cities: Nairobi, Kigali, Accra and Johannesburg.
• History: Cairo, with the pyramids on the edge of the city.

• South Africa: a remote work visa of up to three years for people earning about $36,000 a year. Many passports also get 90 days visa-free.
• Mauritius: the Premium Visa, free, valid for a year and renewable, from $1,500 a month.
• Kenya: a nomad work permit of one or two years for people with steady foreign income (the 2024 rules set $55,000 a year; check the current figure). Short visits need an electronic travel authorisation for most non-African passports.
• Cape Verde: a six-month remote working programme, renewable once, with no Cape Verdean income tax.
• Namibia: a six-month nomad visa from $2,000 a month.
• Morocco and Senegal: 90 days visa-free for many passports, with no nomad visa.
• Egypt: a 30-day visa on arrival or e-visa for many passports, extendable at immigration.
• Rwanda: a 30-day visa on arrival for every nationality.
• Tanzania (Zanzibar) and Ghana: most Western visitors need a visa; apply online before you travel. Ghana also requires a yellow fever vaccination certificate.

A comfortable month costs about $1,100 to $1,600 in Dahab, Cairo, Marrakesh and Taghazout, $1,800 to $2,100 in Zanzibar, Kigali, Nairobi, Dakar, Accra and Johannesburg, and about $2,300 to $2,400 in Cape Town and Mauritius. These are ballpark figures. Imported goods are expensive almost everywhere, and in some capitals, including Accra, Nairobi and Kigali, a Western-standard flat in a secure building costs more than you might expect.

Fibre is good in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Mauritius and the centres of Marrakesh and Cairo. In smaller towns and on the islands, connections are slower and less reliable, and many nomads carry a second SIM for a mobile backup. Starlink is licensed in Kenya, Rwanda, Mozambique, Malawi and several other countries, and many coworking spaces and guesthouses now use it. Power cuts still happen in many countries, so check that your flat and coworking space have a generator, an inverter or a battery backup. South Africa’s rolling blackouts (load-shedding) have been much rarer since 2024, but not gone.

Africa runs from UTC+0 in Ghana, Senegal and the Canary Islands to UTC+4 in Mauritius, with Morocco on UTC+1 for most of the year. That is the continent’s great strength for Europe-based workers: Cape Town and Johannesburg (UTC+2) are on the same time as Central Europe in its summer, and Nairobi and Zanzibar (UTC+3) are one or two hours ahead. US hours are harder, but West Africa is only four or five hours ahead of New York.

• North Africa (Morocco, Egypt): October to April. Summer is very hot inland, though Taghazout and the Atlantic coast stay mild.
• Southern Africa: November to March for Cape Town’s dry summer; Johannesburg is best in autumn and spring.
• East Africa: June to October and December to February are the dry seasons; the long rains come from about March to May.
• West Africa: November to May, before the rainy season.

Safety varies a lot. Kigali, Mauritius and Dahab feel very safe; Cape Town, Johannesburg and Nairobi need clear routines: ride-hailing rather than walking at night, a secure building, and nothing valuable on show. Malaria is present in much of East and West Africa (though not in Cape Town, Mauritius, Morocco or Egypt’s Red Sea towns), so get travel-health advice before you go. Private hospitals in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Mauritius are good. Health insurance with medical evacuation is essential.