Nam ‘rising star’ on ICT Development Index

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has named Namibia “the most dynamic country” as far as its overall score improvement on the 2017 ICT Development Index (IDI) is concerned.

With an overall IDI value of 3.89 points out of a possible 10, Namibia improved by 0.56 points in the latest index. This enabled the country to rise five positions in the rankings.

Namibia’s global ranking on the IDI climbed from 123rd last year to 118th out of 176 countries this year.

Namibia is one of only three countries with the most substantial improvements in IDI value this year, the ITU says. The other two are the Islamic Republic of Iran and Gabon. According to the ITU, all but eight countries improved their overall IDI values this year.

The average value for all economies in the index rose by 0.18 points between IDI 2016 and IDI 2017, reaching 5.11 points. Iceland, with a score of 8.98, came out tops, while Eritrea with 0.96 is at the bottom.

Stats

In terms of information and communication technology (ICT) access, the index shows that 7.71 of Namibians have fixed-telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, while there are 109.19 mobile subscriptions per 100 Namibians. This can be explained by the fact that some Namibians have more than one mobile phone number.

Only 20% of Namibian households have computers. About 29.5% of households have access to Internet, but only 31.03% of individuals use the internet.

A paltry 2.19 per 100 inhabitants Namibians have fixed broadband subscriptions, while 66.15 per 100 people in the country have active mobile-broadband subscriptions.

Unique benchmark

The ITU, which is a specialised United Nations agency, said IDI is a unique benchmark of the level of ICT development in countries across the world, adding that the latest data on ICT development shows continued progress in connectivity and use of ICT.

It states that there has been sustained growth in the availability of communications in the past decade, led by growth in mobile cellular telephony and, more recently, in mobile-broadband.

The ITU said the number of mobile-broadband subscriptions worldwide now exceed 50 per 100 people, enabling improved access to the Internet and online services.

In spite of the rapid expansion of ICTs, there are substantial digital divides between countries and regions. However, there has been registered progress in ICT growth by least developed countries, in terms of connectivity as well as the use of the internet.

Internet Society

The index was released on Wednesday, the same day ICT Minister Tjekero Tweya launched the Internet Society Namibia Chapter, where he decried the lack of access to ICT services in Namibia’s rural areas.

He said there was need to ensure that the Internet becomes a transformative tool for social and economic development as embodied in Namibia’s national development plan, Vision 2030.

“As you might know by now, I have made it my personal goal to ensure that 100% of Namibia is fully covered by internet coverage,” he said.

Tweya, however, warned that the success of the internet should not be measured in terms of sheer numbers of connected individuals but more in terms of accessibility and its contribution to social progress. – Own reporting and Nampa