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SA's digital drive stagnates

Simnikiwe Mzekandaba
By Simnikiwe Mzekandaba, IT in government editor
Johannesburg, 01 Dec 2015
No change in South Africa's ICT development ranking between 2010 and 2015.
No change in South Africa's ICT development ranking between 2010 and 2015.

Between 2010 and 2015, South Africa's global ranking in terms of ICT progress remained the same in 88th position on the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU's) ICT development index (IDI).

Although South Africa ranks among the few African countries in the top 100, with a higher IDI value in 2015 than 2010, the Southern African nation's IDI value, which is not the same as the ranking, is still below the global average of 5.03.

"Very rapid growth in mobile-cellular penetration in a few countries led to very large movements in this [value] indicator, with a number of countries, including Mali, Gabon and South Africa, having substantially improved their indicator value compared with others in the index.

"While all countries in the region [Africa] showed an improvement in IDI levels [value] between 2010 and 2015, only a minority saw substantial improvements in their IDI rankings between 2010 and 2015," says the report.

The IDI, a feature of the ITU's annual Measuring the Information Society (MIS) Report, analyses the level and evolution of ICT developments of 167 economies over the past five years.

The index combines 11 indicators into one benchmark measure that serves to monitor and compare developments in ICT across countries. It ranks countries' performance with regard to ICT infrastructure, use and skills; and uses indicators such as mobile cellular subscriptions, households with a computer, Internet users, fixed and mobile broadband Internet subscriptions, and basic literacy rates.

Change lacking

According to the IDI, as the country with the second largest economy on the continent, South Africa, is in exactly the same ranking in 2015 as it was in 2010.

The index also reveals the biggest barrier to household Internet access in South Africa is a lack of confidence, knowledge or skills to use the Internet.

Other barriers include the cost of the equipment being too high and people not seeing the need for Internet access.

The IDI also notes Nigeri, which has seen substantial investment in ICT in recent years, ranked only 134th, almost exactly the same as in 2010.

Meanwhile, the significant improvements seen on the IDI with regards to the African region occurred in Lesotho, Cape Verde and Mali; with Ghana as the most dynamic IDI performer, reveals the report.

All four African nations showed great improvements in their global rankings when comparing progress made between 2010 and 2015. Ghana moved up 21 places, Lesotho was up 13 places, Cape Verde up 11 places, and Mali up 10 places.

Digital awareness

Richard Hurst, analyst at Ovum, says the reason SA has not moved on the ranking reflects the general inertia the market has been experiencing over the recent past.

"There are a variety of issues that could be cited for this lack of movement, but perhaps we as South Africans need to look at how we are embracing digital technologies in the enterprise as well as consumer space to enhance our productivity and compete on a global footing," he says.

On a different note, perhaps SA should be glad that despite remaining static in the ranking, it didn't slip further down, Hurst notes.

According to Hurst, a lot can be done to increase uptake of digital services among the population using mobile and other services by creating awareness of these products and services.

"I think that we need to really unlock some of the market potential by looking at issues such as the uptake of broadband, what can be done to increase the penetration of these services, obviously a lower cost but there is much more that can be done from both a public sector as well as private sector perspective.

"I think we should all be looking at this as the digitisation of South Africa and how will we go about this," he states.

Leading countries

The telecoms body ranked the Republic of Korea as the top nation in terms of its level of ICT access, use and skills; among the 167 countries measured for the index.

Republic of Korea is closely followed by Denmark and Iceland, in second and third place.

The IDI top 30 ranking includes countries from Europe and high-income nations from other regions, including Australia, Bahrain, Barbados, Canada, Hong Kong (China), Japan, Macao (China), New Zealand, Singapore and the United States. Almost all countries surveyed improved their IDI ranking this year.

Connected world

According to the MIS Report, 3.2 billion people are now online, representing 43.4% of the global population, while mobile-cellular subscriptions have reached almost 7.1 billion worldwide, with over 95% of the global population now covered by a mobile-cellular signal.

The report also notes that all 167 economies included in the ITU's index improved their IDI values between 2010 and 2015, meaning the levels of ICT access, use and skills continue to improve all around the world.

ITU secretary-general Houlin Zhao says: "This report plays an important role in the Sustainable Development Goals process. Without measurement and reporting, we cannot track the progress being made, and this is why ITU gathers data and publishes this important report each year."

Brahima Sanou, director of ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau, adds: "Progress is encouraging in many areas but more needs to be done - especially in the world's poorest and remotest regions, where ICTs can arguably make the biggest difference, and help bring people everywhere out of extreme poverty."

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