South Africa ticked up two notches in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) latest Global Information Technology Report of which the Networked Readiness Index was central; but a number of factors still weighed on the information and communication technology (ICT) industry’s ability to accelerate growth.
The index examined the growth effects of the network and tabled ten subindices dissecting the effectiveness of business, government, policies and education on the ICT sectors in 144 countries.
These included the political and regulatory frameworks, business and innovation, infrastructure and digital content, affordability and skills development, as well as individual, government and business use, and economic and social impacts.
South Africa ranked seventieth out of 144 countries, an improvement from its ranking of 72 out of 142 last year, being one of only two sub-Saharan African countries reaching the top half of the index.
Mauritius, the other higher scoring African country, was ranked 55, while the Seychelles, Cape Verde, Rwanda, Morocco and Ghana scored positions 79, 81, 88, 89 and 92 respectively.
Kenya, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe were among the many African countries polled and ranked 95, 96, 111, 115, and 116 respectively.
South Africa’s ICT sector performed below that of its Brics counterparts – Russia ranked 54, China 58, Brazil 60 and India 68.
Despite ranking 59 in the development of its ICT infrastructure, including international Internet bandwidth capacity and mobile network coverage, besides others, South Africa failed to advance the affordability and skills of the sector, where it only ranked at 104 and 102 respectively.
In terms of mobile pricing, South Africa came in at 117, making it one of the most expensive countries surveyed, next to Switzerland and Australia at 120 and 121.
The average per minute cost was cheapest in Liberia, the Ukraine and Hong Kong.
The monthly charges for fixed broadband in South Africa were slightly cheaper, with the WEF noting a ranking of 89, compared with Germany at 88 and Australia at 94.
The quality of South Africa’s educational system was positioned at 140, while its quality of maths and science education was ranked at 143, ahead of only Yemen.
Further, the country was unable to leverage its ICT sector to improve its social performance, such as Internet in schools, access to basic services, ICT use and government’s efficiency and e-participation, which when combined as an index, achieved a low ranking of 112.
The economic impacts within South Africa, however, realised a score of 51. Economic impacts included the impact of ICT on new products and services, new organisational models and patents and applications for patents.
The country reported a strong uptake of ICT by the business community, where it ranked at 33, but government use and individual use achieved positions of 102 and 81 respectively.
“The perception of a lack of clear government vision (105) to orchestrate and implement a holistic ICT strategy for the country, coupled with deficiencies in the educational system for some segments of the population (102), play negatively in this process and outweigh a rather positive political and regulatory framework for ICT development (21) and [the] pro-business environment (55),” the report stated.
Finland, Singapore, Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway, comprise the top five of the index.