Nigeria Jumps Two Places On ICT Development Index Ranking

Nigeria has moved two places up on the information and communication technology, ICT Development Index ranking, stated the International Telecommunications Union, ITU’s flagship annual Measuring the Information Society Report. According to the report, which captures the level of ICT developments in 166 economies worldwide and compares progress made during the last year, Nigeria moved up from 135 spot in 2012 to 133 spot in 2013, up from 2.14 point to 2.35 point. However, the IDI ranking also showed that 15 African countries were ahead of Nigeria. The countries include Mauritius, Egypt, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Kenya, Gabon, Swaziland Senegal and Lesotho.

On the other hand, Denmark is ranked number one in ITU’s ICT Development Index (IDI) followed by the Republic of Korea. The IDI top 30-ranking include countries from Europe and high-income nations from other regions including Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Japan, Macao (China), New Zealand, Singapore and the United States. Almost all countries surveyed improved their IDI ranking this year.
In terms of regional comparisons, Europe’s average IDI value of 7.14 remains well ahead of the next best-performing region, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS – 5.33), followed by the Americas (4.86), Asia & the Pacific (4.57), the Arab States (4.55), and Africa at 2.31. The CIS and the Arab States showed the highest improvement in regional IDI averages over the past 12 months.
Latest data from IDI shows that over three billion people are now online and information and communication technology (ICT) growth remains buoyant in just about every country worldwide. Internet use continues to grow steadily at 6.6 per cent globally in 2014 (3.3 per cent in developed countries, 8.7 per cent in the developing world).

The number of Internet users in developing countries has doubled in five years (2009-2014), with two thirds of all people online now living in the developing world. Of the 4.3 billion people not yet using the Internet, 90 per cent live in developing countries. In the world’s 42 Least Connected Countries (LCCs), which are home to 2.5 billion people, access to ICTs remains largely out of reach, particularly for these countries’ large rural populations.

ITU secretary-general,Dr Hamadoun Touré said, “ICTs have the potential to make the world a much better place – in particular for those who are the poorest and the most disenfranchised, including women, youth, and those with disabilities. This important report is a critical part of the global ICT development process. Without measurement we cannot track progress, which is why ITU gathers ICT statistics for 200 economies across over 100 indicators.”

In the mobile cellular segment, the report estimates that by the end of 2014, there would be seven billion mobile subscriptions, roughly corresponding to the total global population. But it warns against concluding that everyone is connected; instead, many users have multiple subscriptions, with global growth figures sometimes translating into little real improvement in the level of connectivity of those at the very bottom of the pyramid.

An estimated 450 million people worldwide live in places that are still out of reach of mobile cellular service. Encouragingly, the report notes substantial improvements in access to international bandwidth in poorer countries, with developing nations’ share of total global international bandwidth rising from just nine per cent in 2004 to over 30 per cent today. But lack of sufficient international Internet bandwidth in many of the LCCs remains an important barrier to ICT uptake in these countries, and often limits the quality of Internet access.

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