Forgetthe toga of being the fastest growing telecommunications market in theworld; the unprecedented mobile penetration and the huge market potentials, Nigeria may not be in the digitalfuture, if adequate policy measures are noturgently taken. This is because technologyis dynamic; it does not count on what you have done before, it thrives on innovation and speed of scalability to new trends.
Frightening statistics are now emerging, which show the urgent need for the country to get its act right through proactive ICT policies or risk playing catch-up in the new world.The just released 2015 Global Information Technology Report, GITR, by World Economic Forum, found several African countries, including Nigeria, dropped in Networked Readiness Index ranking.
Networked Readiness is a crucial indicatorto the ability of a country to harness the potential of ICT infrastructure at its disposal to drive social and economic development. Among the African top four technology countries, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and Egypt, only Kenya was found by the report to have improved in networked readiness- meaning that it may also be the first digitized African country if others do not shore up activities appropriately.
According to the report, “while Kenya’s Networked Readiness ranking improved, climbing six places to 86th position, the same is not true for other major African economies. Nigeria dropped seven places and now ranks 119th; South Africa dropped five places and now ranks 75th and Egypt dropped three places and now ranks 94th”.The report however, challenged them to take full advantage of the potential offered by information and communications technologies, ICTs, to drive social and economic transformation. Worried by this scenario, some Senior Cisco Executives have highlighted the considerable challenge facing most African countries asthey seek to develop the infrastructure, institutions and skills needed to reap the full benefits of ICTs.
According to them, only 39% of the global population enjoys access to the Internet despite the fact that more than half now own a mobile phone and Africa ranks as one of the highest in mobile phone penetration. Again, they discovered that lack of access to the Internet is depriving many Africans of the opportunity to take full advantage of e-learning as well as online financial, data and health services.
To them, these challenges call for governments to shape policies that will spur development of broadband access. Cisco believes that crucial to achieving societal and economic transformation is 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.However, in order to embrace the IoE, African governments and businesses mustbe fully digitised, supported by a highly robust and secure network. Meanwhile, to become a digital economy, requires an agile IT model, and the ability to rethink core processes for the digital era. It requires embracing new security, cloud, mobile, social and analytics technologies. In fact, to fully digitize takes imagination, investment and expertise.This is why Networked Readiness is such a crucial indicator of a country’s ability to implement and take full advantage of ICTs.According to GM, Cisco, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Dare Ogunlade, “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 inflectionpoint and African economies need to prioritise ICT adoption to take full advantage of the benefits that embracing digital transformation strategies will offer.”The GITR report suggests that investing in infrastructure and education; supporting the development of local content; and creating an enabling environment by promoting competition through sound regulation will correct the imbalance in many African countries today.
Cisco is committed to working with public and private sector organisations in Africa to work on strategies for the digital transformation, thereby helping them transform their IT strategy, connect everything, embrace analytics, and secure their technology and operations.“Africa can make massive strides in connecting more citizens and bringing about positive social and economic change by improving its Networked Readiness. With political will and commitment from the private sector, progress can be made in bringing the benefit of ICTs to more people. We are already facing the next wave of the Internet– the Internet of Everything (IoE) –Africa needs to prioritise ICT development if it is to benefit from the new experiences and efficiencies that the IoE will bring,” Ogunlade added.
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