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 only in Egypt. However, it was previously observed in several other countries.Africa Time Zones. GreenwichMeanTime.com. Retrieved 6 August 2021.Africa Daylight Saving Time. TimeTemperature.com. Retrieved 5 September 2021.

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;Kröger, Pekka; Oja, Heikki; Donner, Karl Johan; Poutanen, Markku (2007) "Fundamental Astronomy". Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 34. Retrieved 11 September 2021. . 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,Ham, Anthony; Atkinson, Brett; Bainbridge, James; Butler, Stuart; Carillet, Jean-Bernard; Clammer, Paul; Corne, Lucy; Filou, Emilie; Fitzpatrick, Mary; Grosberg, Michael; Holden, Trent; Lee, Jessica; Luckham, Nana; Maric, Vesna; Masters, Tom; Maxwell, Virginia; Ranger, Helen; Sainsbury, Brendan; Sieg, Caroline; Smith, Helena; Lioy, Stephen; St Louis, Regis; Stiles, Paul; Parkes, Lorna (2017) "Lonely Planet Africa". Lonely Planet. p. 180. Retrieved 12 September 2021. Morocco and TunisiaBartky, Ian R. (2007) "One Time Fits All: The Campaigns for Global Uniformity". Stanford University Press. p. 134. Retrieved 12 September 2021. 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,Fitzpatrick, Mary (2000) "South Africa, Lesotho & Swaziland". Lonely Planet Publications. p. 98. "All three countries use South African Standard Time". Retrieved 10 September 2021. whilst EgyptNational Institute for Exploration (1987) "Egypt: Images of Adventure". Viewfinder Publications. p. 131 "[...] Egypt observes Eastern European Time, which is 2 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time." Retrieved 11 September 2021. and Libyaيرجى التقديم الآن: برنامج منح فولبرايت 2021-2022 للطلاب الأجانب. (in Arabic). U.S. Embassy in Libya – ly.usembassy.gov. Retrieved 11 September 2021. 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)Maurel, Martine (2000) "Mauritius Travel Guide (Globetrotter Travel Guides)". New Holland Publishers. p. 126. Retrieved 12 September 2021. and Seychelles Time (SCT)Skerrett, Adrian; Drynan, Kate et al. (2017) "Seychelles - Berlitz Pocket Guide". Berlitz Publishing. p. 117 "Seychelles time is GMT plus 4 hours...". Retrieved 12 September 2021. 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,Bulawayo Chronicle, 8 July 1899. p 5. Retrieved 10 September 2021. 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, Egypt, 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,Committee for Social Affairs (1993) Report of the Committee for Social Affairs of the President's Council on a Daylight Saving Programme. Government of South Africa. Retrieved 13 September 2021. Cape Verde in 1945, Madagascar in 1954, Ghana in 1956,Gold Coast (1957). "Annual Volume of the Ordinances of the Gold Coast Enacted During the Year 1956". Government Print. Department. Government of Ghana. p. 83, Time Determination (Amendment) Ordinance, 1956 (No. 21 of 1956), 29 August 1956. Retrieved 13 September 2021. Sierra Leone in 1962,Act of Standard Time, 31 August 1962. Government of Sierra Leone. Retrieved 13 September 2021. Algeria and Chad in 1980, Sudan in 1985, Tunisia in 2008,التخلي نهائيا عن اعتماد التوقيت الصيفي في تونس, 27 March 2010. (in Arabic). ar.webmanagercenter.com. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 13 September 2021. Mauritius in 2009, Libya in 2012,"Clocks to go back an hour on Saturday", 4 November 2012. Libya Herald. Retrieved 13 September 2021. Namibia in 2017,Nakale, Albertina (9 August 2017) . New Era Retrieved 13 September 2021. and Morocco in 2018 (using year-round DST from 2018 to 2026). Since 2023, Egypt has observed DST starting on last Friday of April and ending on the last Thursday of October.

Time zones