Namibia performs poorly in ICT development
Namibia performed poorly in the rankings released by the World Economic Forum in its 2012 Global Information Technology Report, which measures the extent to which 142 countries take advantage of ICT and other new technologies to increase their growth and well-being. On the overall rankings Namibia came 105th out of 142 countries with a score of 3.35.
Despite scoring well on its political and regulatory environments coming in at 33rd overall, Namibia lagged behind on other indicators scoring particularly poorly on affordability ranking at 126th in the world and 116th at the economic and 118th at social impacts of ICT. Not much better were the rankings on the business innovation environment ranking at 87th, 104th at skills development and 108th at government usage.
Sweden (1st) and Singapore (2nd) topped the rankings in this year’s report through leveraging information and communications technologies to boost their countries’ competitiveness. With a record coverage of 142 economies worldwide, the report remains the most comprehensive and authoritative international assessment of the impact of ICT on competitiveness and the well-being of nations.
The overall Networked Readiness Index was comprised of four sub-indexes that measured the environment for ICT development; the readiness of society to use ICT; the actual usage of the main stakeholders; and the impacts that ICT generates on the economy and society.
Overall, on the Networked Readiness Index Namibia ranked 105th out of 142 countries with a score of 3.35. In comparison, Namibia’s immediate neighbours to the east and south performed better with Botswana in the 89th position with a score of 3.58 and South Africa in the 72nd position with 3.87. Angola is in the 140th position with a score of 2.49.
Namibia’s ranking on the environment sub-index which gauges the friendliness of a country’s market and regulatory framework in supporting high levels of ICT uptake and the development of entrepreneurship and innovation-prone conditions, was 44, scoring 4.22.
On the readiness sub-index which measures the degree to which a society is prepared to make good use of affordable ICT infrastructure and digital content, Namibia ranked 113th, scoring 3.4.
