Nigeria Ranks 109th on Network Readiness Index

…Score Drops

As ICT Industry experts stressed the importance of networked readiness to drive social and economic transformation for African countries, Nigeria ranks 109th out of 131 Countries on the Network Readiness Index (NRI) in the year 2022.

The Network Readiness Index 2022 ranks a total of 131 economies that collectively account for almost 95 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP).

First launched with the World Economic Forum in 2002, and redesigned in 2019, the NRI is an in-depth analysis of 131 countries’ performance across four dimensions of digital readiness – technology, people, governance, and impact – using 58 different indicators.

Networked Readiness is a crucial indicator of the ability of a country to harness the potential of ICT infrastructure at its disposal to drive social and economic development.

The 2022 Network Readiness Index (NRI) Report report has seen the US knock the Netherlands off the top spot, with Singapore and Sweden coming in second and third place.

The United States is leading the world when it comes to affordable and accessible technology, that makes life easier for its people and improves its economy.

The United States takes the 1st spot from the Netherlands (4th) as the most network-ready society. The biggest mover is Singapore (2nd), which surged from seventh position to rank second in this year’s index, pushing Denmark (6th) and Finland (7thth) out of the top 5. The other five countries that make up the top 10 are Sweden (3rd), Switzerland (5th), Germany (8th), Korea, Rep. (9th) and Norway (10th) while Canada (11th) and Japan take 13th place globally.

While Nigeria ranks 109th coming behind Africa South Africa taking the 68th spot, Mauritius the 72nd and Kenya 77th. India also improved its position by six slots and is now placed at 61st rank as per the Network Readiness Index 2022 (NRI 2022).

As India improved its score from 49.74 in 2021 to 51.19 in 2022, Nigeria’s score dropped to 36.67 in 2022 from 37.51 in 2021 which was higher than 30.44 gotten in 2020.

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Among the African top four technology countries, are 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 2022 NRI ranking, Kenya ranked behind South Africa and Mauritius on four dimensions of digital readiness including technology, people, governance and impact.

According to the top three countries by region, Nigeria is ranked 11th in Africa. It has a score above the regional average in two of the
four pillars: score, technology and people. With regard to sub-pillars, it outperforms the average in Africa in eight of the twelve sub-pillars: Access, Content, Future Technologies, Businesses, Governments, Trust, Economy and Quality of Life.

Speaking on this, Soumitra DuttaCo-founder and President of Portulans Institute, Dean of Oxford Saïd and co-author of the report said “Gen-Z and millennials are digital natives who are pointing to the direction of our digital futures. The shape of business and society tomorrow is being influenced by digital technologies in ways that we are only starting to understand today. The NRI is a valuable tool that provides better metrics and insights into creating a safe, inclusive and trusted digital future for businesses and society.”