Despite its infrastructural challenges, Nigeria is among the top three countries in the emerging broadband markets, according to the first Global Connectivity Index, GCI, on West Africa released at the weekend by Huawei Technologies.Covering 50 countries including Nigeria among others and 90% of the world’s population, the 2015 GCI, highlited on the growing opportunities around the world.
Although all economies are digitizing, the GCI provides a guide of which country is ahead, behind , why and who is poised to move up or back.
The Index , among other things benchmarks 50 economies in terms of connectivity, ICT usage, and digital transformation.
The President of Huawei Western Africa Region Mr. Peng Song who released the GCI at the just concluded Huawei Cloud Congress (HCC) West Africa 2015 held in Lagos at the weekend told the gathering that Nigeria has a small fixed base but huge potential in the uptake of mobile products.
Stating that Nigeria is one of the world’s largest mobile subscriber markets offering impressive opportunities primarily in the mobile broadband space where rapid m-Commerce uptake is driving market growth, he said , “Nigerians are the highest number of internet users in Africa all of which accumulates to an improved potential within the country.
Overall, the 2015 GCI, according to him, showed that 20% growth in ICT investment will increase a country’s GDP by 1%.
“The Global Connectivity Index is not merely a ranking of countries. We see it as a platform to partner with policymakers and enterprise leaders to identify, harness, and create new digital economy opportunities with the aim of building a better Connected West Africa.”, , he said.
By 2025, according to Huawei forecast, as many as 100 billion connections will be generated globally, 90 percent of which will come from intelligent sensors.
This increase, he said will be attributed to enterprises becoming enabled by the internet.
By leveraging connectivity to streamline business processes, reduce costs and improve efficiency, enterprises will drive innovation and move the focus from a consumer driven internet to an industrial one.
“It is an amazing era with rapid growth and data explosion. In this dynamic environment, Huawei will continue to invest in IT industry, emphasizing on the concept of being integrated, customer-centric and providing customers with innovative, differentiated, leading-edge products and solutions. “, he added.
Top countries:
The United States ranked highest among surveyed countries with Sweden, Singapore and Switzerland leading the GCI.
Similarly, Chile, China, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to the GCI lead the developing markets, with all three ranking in the high teens to low twenties overall.
Enablers of digital transformation
Accordingly, the GCI also identified five enablers of digital transformation to include data centers, cloud services, Big Data, broadband, and the Internet of Things.
These technologies, the release added represent the targets that stakeholders should focus their investments on in order to most efficiently transform their economies for the digital age.
Recommendation:
For a better connected West Africa, Huawei GCI ecommended increased datacenter investment, developing economies need to moving from Investing in supply to building demand and learning from developing countries’ success to become Global GCI leaders.
