Zim lowly ranked in ICT

Published: 08 May 2014

ZIMBABWE has been ranked number 117 out of 148 countries graded for their capacity to exploit opportunities offered by the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector. The southern African country dropped slightly from number 116 in 2013.

But in Africa, Zimbabwe was ranked among the top 20, at number 16. It was behind Mauritius, South Africa, Tunisia, Egypt, Kenya, Ghana, Botswana, Zambia and Nigeria, among others. The country has been operating without an ICT policy and experts have urged government to come up with one to enable the sector to play an active role in economic development.

A draft ICT policy was adopted by sector players in 2012. Results of a survey released last week by the World Economic Forum Global Information Technology Report said in several economies, the ICT industry has become an important catalyst to development, accounting for a significant share of employment opportunities.

ICTs interact closely with many other sectors, thus enabling innovations to accrue, the report noted. It said the impacts of ICTs were also evident in the development of new skills that are important in knowledge based, information-rich societies. The report said in most societies ICTs allow citizens to participate more actively and steadily in social and political debates, making governments more accountable.

"They improve access to better and faster services, which, in turn, yield significant benefits," read the report.

Topping the index was Singapore, with Finland ranked second. Other countries in the top five were Netherlands, Sweden and Korea Republic. Burundi anchored the list at number 148, while Chad, Myanmar, Haiti and Guinea were ranked in the bottom five.

The ICT rankings have been published since 2002 through collaborative efforts between INSEAD Business School and the World Economic Forum. This year's theme was; "Rewards and Risks of Big Data." The report said an enabling environment determined the capacity of an economy and society to benefit from the use of ICTs.

"The success of a country in leveraging ICTs and achieving the desired economic and social benefits will depend on its overall environment, including market conditions, the regulatory framework, and innovation prone conditions to boost innovation and entrepreneurship," reads the report in part.

It said ICT readiness and usage remained key drivers and pre-conditions for obtaining economic growth.

"Despite the increasing availability of ICTs, the question of access and usage remains important especially for developing countries, given their need to narrow the digital divide," said the report.

Even within developed nations, the World Economic Forum said there was still need to provide high-speed broadband to all users. The report said all factors and sectors of an economy should interact and co-evolve within an ICT ecosystem. Those societies that can count on better-prepared actors and an enabling environment are more likely to benefit from higher rates of ICT use and more extensive impacts, it said.

"The framework should provide clear policy orientations and identify opportunities for public-private collaboration…This is important because the development and general uptake of ICTs depend on the capacity of a country to provide an institutional framework," said the report.

Advantages identified for Sub Saharan Africa in terms of ICT growth include the growing importance of mobile technology and its impact on financial services. This has, however, been affected by poor infrastructure in the region as well as weaknesses in business and innovation ecosystems.

How Zimbabwe was ranked (out of 148 countries)

Networked Readiness Index 2014 ……………………………    117
Environment sub index …………………………………………..    133
Political and regulatory environment ……………………….    122
Business and innovation environment ……………………..     133
Readiness sub index ……………………………………………….     97
Infrastructure and digital content …………………………….    128
Affordability …………………………………………………………..    24
Skills ……………………………………………………………………..    108
Usage sub index ……………………………………………………..    118
Individual usage …………………………………………………….    107
Business usage ……………………………………………………….    109
Government usage …………………………………………………    128
Impact sub index ……………………………………………………     131
Economic impacts…………………..………………………………    129
Social impacts ………………………………………………………..    130
- fingaz

Tags: ICT,