Stakeholders in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector have continued to express their concerns over Nigeria’s poor ranking on the latest ICT Development Index (IDI). Nigeria was rated 143 out of 175 countries globally in the annual “Measuring the Information Society Report (MISR) published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
This time, a group called the Broadband 2018 Coalition is urging the federal government to declare a state of emergency on the ICT industry over what it sees as a “significant downward shift” from the 137thposition Nigeria occupied in 2016.
The report also showed that, the country did not fare any better on the African continent as it placed 15th behind countries like Mauritius, South Africa, Kenya, Gabon, Ghana, Zimbabwe and even Cote d’Ivoire.
Danjuma Yusuf, convener of the group and technology expert noted in a statement that Nigeria’s technology landscape needs urgent intervention given its sharp stagnation and decline in recent years and tasked the federal and state governments and other relevant regulatory agencies to quickly focus on strategies that would increase the country’s global competitiveness in ICT.
Yusuf made reference to Kenya which also launched its broadband policy in 2013 but is currently leading Africa in internet penetration with over 30 million people having (67%) internet access according to Jumia Business Intelligence and GSMA ‘White Paper 2017’.
A proactive regulation and a government-funded National Optic Fibre Backbone Infrastructure (NOFBI) project rolled out hundreds of thousands kilometres of fibre optic cables across Kenya’s 47 counties.
The ICT Development Index is a composite measure that combines eleven indicators into one benchmark index to monitor and compare ICT developments between 176 countries across the world.
The three dimension frameworks used to measure the IDI are Access (level of ICT readiness which includes five infrastructure and access indicators: fixed-telephone subscriptions, mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions, international internet bandwidth per internet user, households with a computer, and households with internet access); Use (level of ICT intensity which includes three intensity and usage indicators: individuals using the internet, fixed broadband subscriptions, and mobile-broadband subscriptions) and Skills (Capabilities or skills which are secondary enrolment, and gross tertiary enrolment).
