World Economic Forum ranks Seychelles as 2nd best IT centre in Africa
ICT |Author: Sharon Uranie | April 26, 2014, Saturday @ 12:46| 6479 views
(Seychelles News Agency) - The World Economic Forum has ranked Seychelles as the 2nd best in Africa in the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) 2014, which assesses 148 countries based on their capacities in the information and communication technology (ICT) sectors.
Seychelles, with a population of 90,000 people, moved from position 79 in 2013 to 66 in 2014, in the index prepared by the nonprofit international organization based in Switzerland.
The Indian Ocean island nation scored highest in the readiness subindex for infrastructure and digital content (43), IT skills (44), the political and regulatory environment (49) and also in the business usage subindex (55).
The first place is held by neighbouring island nation Mauritius, with a population of 1.2 million, which moved up seven places to 48th position from 55 in 2013.
In the African region, South Africa ranks 70 on the index, Egypt ranks 91, Kenya ranks 92 and Nigeria 112.
In the global WEF rankings, the top countries in ICT are Finland at 1, Singapore at 2, Sweden 3, Netherlands 4, Norway 5, Switzerland 6, the US at 7, Hong Kong 8th, the UK at 9 and South Korea at 10.
54 indicators are used to assess on the ICT capabilities, including affordability regulatory, innovation and business as well as infrastructure environments.
In 2013 Seychelles maintained its 1st position in ICT development the African region in a separate index developed by the ITU.
According to the 2013 edition of "Measuring Information Society" (MIS) Report which is published annually by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in Geneva, Switzerland, Seychelles was ranked 64th out of 157 countries for the Information and Communications Technology Development Index.
The island nation has 100 percent mobile phone penetration, 47 percent of the population uses the Internet, and there is 12% fixed (wired)-broadband penetration, according to the ITU report.
Seychelles has two telecoms providers, Airtel Seychelles and Cable & Wireless Seychelles, which compete for the business of the communication-loving islanders. Kokonet and Intelvision, two other local companies also provide internet services.