Nigeria’s ranking in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) development with regards to Networked Readiness Index has dropped seven places to 119, the World Economic Forum has said.
Networked Readiness Index is a crucial indicator of a country’s ability to implement and take full advantage of ICTs.
This is according to a World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report 2015 (GITR), suggests that ICT will help accelerate digital transformation in Africa. African countries need to take full advantage of the potentials offered by information and communications technologies (ICTs) to drive social and economic transformation, according to the Report 2015 (GITR). The study shows that several African countries have dropped in terms of the report’s Networked Readiness Index ranking.
While Kenya’s Networked Readiness ranking improved, climbing six places to 86th position, the same is not the case for other major African economies such as Nigeria, which dropped seven places and now ranks 119th. South Africa fell five places and now ranks 75th while Egypt dropped three places and now ranks 94th.
The Cisco experts said that crucial to achieving societal and economic transformation was the ability to embrace the Internet of Everything (IoE), the connections between people, process, data and things, to create unprecedented opportunities for African citizens as well as the public and private sectors. In order to embrace the IoE, they said that African governments and businesses must be fully digitised, supported by a highly robust and secure network.
General Manager for Cisco, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Mr. Dare Ogunlade said: “At Cisco, we have learned that technology helps people find innovative solutions to address societal problems. We believe there has never been a better time to combine human ingenuity and technological innovation to improve the lives of all Africans.
“As home to nine of the world’s 15 fastest growing economies, Africa is ripe for transformation and is an increasingly attractive environment for global business investments.
Technology is at an inflection point and African economies need to prioritise ICT adoption to take full advantage of the benefits that embracing digital transformation strategies will offer.”
SOURCE:BizWatchNigeria
