Scheduling with Teams in Africa: Lagos, Nairobi, and Cape Town
Africa is often treated as a single time zone in scheduling discussions. It isn’t — the continent spans five. The three cities that come up most in international business contexts are Lagos, Nairobi, and Cape Town, and each is on a different offset.
The practical upside: none of them observe daylight saving time. That means the gap between your city and theirs stays fixed — it’s your offset that shifts when you move clocks, not theirs.
The three main hubs
Lagos, Nigeria — UTC+1 The same as London in winter, same as London in summer (because when London moves to BST at UTC+1, Lagos stays at UTC+1). Very good overlap with UK and Western Europe. For US teams, similar to working with the UK — Lagos mornings land as the previous afternoon in New York.
Nairobi, Kenya — UTC+3 Three hours ahead of London in winter, two hours ahead in summer. Good overlap with UK mornings. The same offset applies to Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia.
Cape Town / Johannesburg, South Africa — UTC+2 Between Lagos and Nairobi. In European summer, Cape Town and Berlin briefly share the same offset (CEST = UTC+2). UK mornings work well.
Overlap windows
Because African offsets don’t shift, the overlap windows are stable. Build a recurring meeting slot and it won’t drift when your clocks change — though it will shift by one hour when you move to or from summer time.
| Your location | Lagos (UTC+1) | Nairobi (UTC+3) | Cape Town (UTC+2) |
|---|---|---|---|
| London (GMT) | Near-perfect overlap | London mornings | London mornings |
| New York (EST) | 9am–1pm EST | Early morning only | Before noon EST only |
| San Francisco (PST) | Very tight | No standard overlap | No standard overlap |
Key holidays
Nigeria: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha (dates vary with lunar calendar), Independence Day (1 October), Christmas.
Kenya: Easter (4-day holiday), Madaraka Day (1 June), Jamhuri Day (12 December).
South Africa: 12 official public holidays including Freedom Day (27 April), Youth Day (16 June), Heritage Day (24 September). The Christmas–New Year stretch is widely taken as leave.
Use meetwhen with Africa/Lagos, Africa/Nairobi, or Africa/Johannesburg. The stable overlap window is one of the easier scheduling situations in international work.
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