Global ICT Development Index ranks Botswana 5th in Africa

Botswana is ranked 5th in Africa and 108 in the world in the Global ICT Development Index (IDI), a point up from 109 realised in 2015. According to the report Africa region registered by far the lowest regional average IDI performance.

Only three countries in the region - Mauritius, Seychelles and South Africa - fall into the two upper quartiles of the IDI distribution or exceed the global average value in IDI 2016, while Cape Verde and Botswana exceed the average value of 4.07 for developing countries.

“For Botswana to reaffirm her position as 5th in Africa is confirmation of the positive strides that this country has made on the global ICT arena. The country is doing very well in terms of two parameters of Access and Use but still needs to put more effort into improving ICT skills,” says BOCRA Chief Executive Officer Thari Pheko.

By contrast, 29 out of 39 African countries in the Index rank as Least Connected Countries (LCCs) in the lowest quartile of the distribution, and the region includes all ten countries at the bottom of the global rankings. Findings illustrate the extent to which Africa lags behind other regions in ICT development and importance of addressing the region's ongoing digital divide.

All countries in the region showed some improvement in IDI value between 2015 and 2016, although in 11 countries this improvement was marginal (less than 0.10 points). The average improvement recorded was 0.18 points, less than the average improvement of 0.22 points for developing countries.

This year's results show that nearly all 175 countries covered improved their IDI values between 2015 and 2016. During the same period, stronger improvements have been made on ICT use than access, mainly as a result of strong growth in mobile-broadband uptake globally. The report was released last month.