Nigeria Ranks 133rd Globally and 13th in Africa in ICT

According to the Global Information Technology Report (GITR) released yesterday, Nigeria ranked 133 out of 148 countries on the 2014 Networked Readiness Index (NRI). The report was published with the theme: “Rewards and Risks of Big Data’ and it measured the capacity of 148 economies to leverage ICT for growth and well-being. Also, in the index which started out more than 13 years, Nigeria was ranked 13^th in Africa while Mauritius lead the list followed by South Africa and Tunisia. They were placed globally in the same order as number 48, 70 and 87. Other countries ahead of Nigeria in Africa are Cape Verde (89^th), Egypt (91^st), Kenya (92^nd), Morocco (99^th), Bostwana (103^rd), Gambia (107^th) and Zambia (110^th) while Finland (1^st), Singapore (2^nd), Sweden (3^rd), the Netherlands (4^th), Norway (5^th) and Switzerland (6^th) led the pack. The report said that the world at present is slowly rising out from one of the worst financial and economic crises in decades and policymakers, business leaders and civil societies are looking for new opportunities where they can consolidate growth, generate new employment and create business opportunities. Information and communication technologies (ICT) continue to rank high on the list as one of the key sources of new opportunities. The report added that the stalling of progress was perturbing for emerging and developing nations and are at risk of missing out on many positive impacts of information and communications technologies (ICT) including increased innovation, economic competitiveness and greater social inclusion and that the benefits of ICT can only be fully derived when a country implement an holistic strategy aimed at creating conditions for skills, innovation and entrepreneurship to flourish alongside modern infrastructure.