Nigeria Ranks 87th in Global Household Internet Penetration Statistics

International Telecommunications Union

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) today October 1st released a surveyed report globally on household Internet penetration. Out of about 140 countries, Nigeria ranked 87 with 7.8 per cent penetration. AllAfrica.com reports.

However, Korea Republic ranked number one globally with 98.1 per cent, followed by Qatar and Singapore in second and third position with 96.4 per cent and 86 per cent respectively.

African countries including Morocco (29 and 46 per cent); South Africa (37 and 39.4 per cent); Egypt (44 and 34.5 per cent); Ghana (46 and 31.8 per cent); Tunisia (65 and 18.2 per cent); Namibia (68 and 16 per cent); Libya (69 and 15.9 per cent); Kenya (72 and 14.2 per cent); Gabon (84 and 8.8 per cent) and Angola (86 and 7.8 per cent). 

Nigeria, which ranked 87 with 7.8 per cent is however, ahead of countries including Indonesia; Gambia; Senegal and Mali among others.

ITU, which had already predicted that half of the world's population will be online by 2017, noted that developing economies needed to do more in terms of ensuring that the populations have access significantly to the Internet, stressing that it can create millions of jobs.

According to ITU Broadband Commission's report tagged: "The State of Broadband 2014: Broaband for All", in terms of the economy where the individuals have access to the Internet, Nigeria ranked 101 out of 196 countries surveyed with 38 per cent penetration.

Iceland; Norway and Sweden topped the chart with 96.5 per cent; 95.1 per cent; 94.8 per cent respectively. The United Kingdom, which ranked 12th has 89.8 per cent penetration, while the United States of America in 19th position has 84.2 per cent.

In Africa, Morroco lead others at 67th position with 56 per cent penetration; Egypt is at 79 the position with 49.6 per cent and South Africa at the 80 the position has 48.9 per cent individual penetration.

Nigeria however, ranked among the about 61 countries globally with national broadband policy.

According to the commission, developing countries, including Nigeria cannot afford to remain on the sidelines, as the digital revolution puts knowledge economies and societies into a dominant position with global globalization.

ITU noted that the real information revolution lies in the growing day-by-day use of Internet enabled devices in all parts of our lives, stressing that t is this era of mass connectivity - delivering small, but incremental changes to the ways in which each individual does things - that promises to transform development and global welfare.

Furthermore, in terms of ultra-high-speed broadband, the commission noted that there are still not many consumer apps and services that need Gigabit speeds, but such services are on their way.

According to to it, experience shows that technology typically moves faster than most people anticipate - so countries and operators need to start planning now for the imminent broadband world.

To help empower their populations and to cope with this challenges of capacity, ITU asked wants governments to initiate and prioritize their national broadband planning process and invest in ICTs and digital e-skills as an engine of economic growth and development.

These plans, according to the United Nations ICT body must take into account both supply and demand - equitable deployment of broadband cannot be accelerated by consideration of one side alone.

In line with the Commission's targets, Governments should seek to make broadband available, affordable and accessible by both men and women alike.

Source: AllAfrica.com