Nigeria ranks behind Mauritius, Seychelles, 13 others in ICT development

• ITU urges African govts to prioritise technology
Fourteen countries have been ranked ahead of Nigeria in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) development in Africa.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) stated this yesterday in a report on the 2017 ICT Development Index (IDI), which measured the information society.

According to the report, Mauritius, Seycheles, South Africa, Cape Verde, Bostwana, Gabon, Ghana, Namibia, Cote d’Ivoire, Sao Tome and Principle, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Senegal are ahead of Nigeria in the ranking.

The IDI survey, which examined about 38 countries in Africa, is a yearly report that studies the adoption of new technology trends and growth of ICT among countries.

The report showed that while some countries recorded growths in the last one year, Nigeria remained stagnant at 15th position, while Seychelles, which ranked fourth in 2016, moved two positions upward to become second a year later.

Also, Cote d’Ivoire, which ranked 12th position a year ago, moved to the ninth in 2017.

Mauritius maintained the number one position back-to-back in Africa and ranked 72nd in 2017 globally, from its 75th position a year ago. Nigeria maintained same spot globally and regionally in 2016 and 2017, ranking 143rd out of 176 countries surveyed by the ITU.

The telecoms union stated that Africa has by far the lowest average IDI performance in any region, adding that only one country, Mauritius falls into the top half of the IDI distribution or exceeded the global average value for IDI 2017.

It added that only four more countries: Seychelles, South Africa, Cape Verde and Botswana, exceeded the average value of 4.26 for developing countries.

ITU Secretary-General, Houlin Zhao, who called for Africa’s governments’ attention on ICT, noted that a revolution would unfold in the coming decades with unpredictable opportunities, challenges and implications.

Also, a telecoms expert, Kehinde Aluko, cautioned that until the fundamental challenges hindering innovations and creativity are removed, the country would continue to experience a lull in technology development.