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Convert West Africa Time to Coordinated Universal Time

Instantly convert West Africa Time (WAT) to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) with our free online calculator.

Reviewed by Christopher FloiedUpdated

West Africa Time

06:20:56 AM

Wed, Jun 24 (WAT)

Coordinated Universal Time

05:20:56 AM

Wed, Jun 24 (UTC)

UTC is -1 hours from WAT

Convert a Specific Time

WAT

24-Hour Comparison

WATUTC
12:00 AM11:00 PM(-1d)
1:00 AM12:00 AM
2:00 AM1:00 AM
3:00 AM2:00 AM
4:00 AM3:00 AM
5:00 AM4:00 AM
6:00 AM5:00 AM
7:00 AM6:00 AM
8:00 AM7:00 AM
9:00 AM8:00 AM
10:00 AM9:00 AM
11:00 AM10:00 AM
12:00 PM11:00 AM
1:00 PM12:00 PM
2:00 PM1:00 PM
3:00 PM2:00 PM
4:00 PM3:00 PM
5:00 PM4:00 PM
6:00 PM5:00 PM
7:00 PM6:00 PM
8:00 PM7:00 PM
9:00 PM8:00 PM
10:00 PM9:00 PM
11:00 PM10:00 PM

How to Convert West Africa Time to Coordinated Universal Time

Formula

To convert West Africa Time (WAT) to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC): Convert WAT to UTC

About West Africa Time (WAT)

West Africa Time (WAT, IANA: Africa/Lagos, Africa/Kinshasa) is the civil time for West African and Central African countries, set at UTC+1:00 year-round (no DST). WAT serves approximately 350 million people across: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, DR Congo (western half), Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Niger, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Tunisia. WAT is the same offset as Central European Time (CET) in winter, easing African business coordination with Western European partners. Major WAT cities: Lagos Nigeria (15M metro — the largest city in Africa and home to one of the world's fastest-growing populations), Kinshasa DRC (17M metro), Algiers (3.7M metro), Tunis (2.4M metro), Yaoundé (2.8M), Douala (2.7M), Brazzaville (1.8M), Luanda (8M metro), N'Djamena (1.4M). The eastern half of the DRC uses Central Africa Time (CAT = UTC+2). Affects: Nollywood film-industry production in Lagos, African Union meetings, Lagos NGX (Nigerian Exchange Group) trading hours, and Lagos-São Paulo + Lagos-Buenos Aires Atlantic-shipping schedules.

About Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)

Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time, defined since 1972 as the time at the Prime Meridian (0° longitude) maintained by BIPM (Bureau International des Poids et Mesures) in Sèvres, France. UTC is computed as a weighted average of approximately 400 atomic clocks at ~80 national metrology institutes (NIST in the US, NPL in UK, PTB in Germany, NICT in Japan, KRISS in Korea, etc.) per the formal definition in ITU-R Recommendation TF.460-6 (2002). UTC is functionally identical to GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) for civil purposes but differs slightly in its underlying timescale — UTC uses atomic seconds with occasional leap seconds inserted (announced by IERS Bulletin C ~6 months in advance, last leap second was December 31, 2016, and the system may be retired by 2035 per Resolution D of CGPM 2022). UTC is the standard for aviation (ICAO Annex 5), maritime navigation (IMO COLREGS), all internet protocols (NTP, PTP per IEEE 1588), all scientific publications, GPS / Galileo / GLONASS / BeiDou GNSS, and Universal Time on Wikipedia/Wikidata.

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