The World Economic Forum (WEF) has released its annual ranking of national IT adoption. Nigeria is still lagging in its use of information and communication technology. Nigeria finished 104 in the study’s comparison of 138 countries that make up 99 per cent of the World’s total gross domestic product. Mauritius and South Africa lead in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, having placed 47th and 61st respectively in the global ranking.
The report entitled “The Global Information Technology Report 2010-2011”, placed Sweden first followed by Singapore, Finland and Switzerland. The 411-page report, is based on readiness and adoption of technologies by governments, people, and businesses. It is also based on an index of 71 economic and social indicators, as diverse as new patents, mobile phone subscriptions, property rights, software piracy and availability of venture capital.
Nigeria was ranked low on many measures that affect economic competitiveness. For example it ranked 112th on infrastructure, especially in its human resources dimension, and ICT usage is still far below international best practices, especially for the business sector (81st) and the government (123). Nigeria also lagged behind on conducive market (94th) and political and regulatory environment (107th), compared to remarkable showings from Mauritius (26th and 33rd respectively) and South Africa (25th and 23rd respectively). Majority of countries in Africa lag in the bottom half of the Network Readiness Index (NRI) rankings, even though many countries have started to leverage more and more on ICT to improve efficiency and reach out more citizens.