Lagos — Despite the seeming revolution in the Nigerian telecoms industry, the country's global rating in the exploitation of Information Communications Technology (ICT) to accelerate development has dropped.

According to the Global Information Technology Report 2004-2005 released Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Nigeria dropped on the Networked Readiness Index from 79th position in 2003-2004 to 86th in the 2004-2005 survey.

Among the 23 African countries covered by the Index, Nigeria joins countries like Malawi, Angola, Ethiopia and Chad to drop in their previous rankings. Malawi dropped from 88th to 93rd, Angola from 99th to 101st, while Ethiopia and Chad dropped from 101st to 102nd and 102nd to 104th respectively.

However, South Africa and Tunisia strengthened their dominant positions among the 23 African countries covered by the Index, positioning themselves in 34th and 31st place overall, up from 37th and 40th position last year respectively.

Mauritius ranks 47 and Botswana ranks 50, improving its position by 5 places, Morocco ranks 54, Namibia 55, Egypt 57 while Ghana, Gambia, Kenya and Uganda rank 65, 74, 75 and 77 respectively.

Meanwhile, the report places Singapore as the best performer worldwide in a number of categories - quality of maths and science education, affordability of telephone connection charges, and government prioritisation and procurement of ICT - and gets extremely high scores in other areas, such as affordability of Internet access.

With a total coverage of 104 economies worldwide and published for the fourth consecutive year, The Global Information Technology Report has emerged as the world's leading assessment of the impact of information and communication technology on the development and competitiveness of nations.

Under the theme "Efficiency in an Increasingly Connected World", The Global Information Technology Report 2004-2005 is released at a time of cautious optimism about the short-term global economic outlook and the emergence of a broad consensus about the central role that ICT plays in boosting growth prospects of developed and developing countries.

According to the report, Singapore tops the rankings of the Networked Readiness Index 2004-2005 for the first time saying this is primarily due to its superior performance in terms of the ability of individuals and government to tap into the potential of ICT, as well as actual government usage of ICT.

"Singapore's remarkable performance is a consequence of the government's consistent and continuous efforts in fostering ICT penetration and usage, as well as the quality of the country's educational system and its able use of foreign technology", it said.

The United States drops to number 5, following a three-year reign at the top but the report noted that the loss in rank is "less due to actual erosion in performance with respect to its past history and more the result of other countries scaling up positions."

"The United States maintains global leadership in the business readiness component of the Networked Readiness Index as well as in variables such as the quality of its scientific research institutions and business schools - which have no peer in the world - and the availability of training opportunities for the labour force as well as the existence of a well-developed venture capital market, which has spurred innovation", the report added.

Apart from Singapore at number 1, Hong Kong and Japan entered for the first time in the top ten, at 7 and 8 respectively, and Australia, Taiwan, New Zealand, Korea and Malaysia quite well positioned at 11, 15, 21, 24 and 27 respectively.

India and China significantly improve their positions climbing to number 39 and 41, compared to 45 and 51 in 2003, respectively.

The report stated that Japan's top ten performance is noteworthy, given the country's impressive track record in the area of technological innovation, second only to the United States in terms of US patents registered.

Soumitra Dutta, Professor of Business and Technology and Dean of Executive Education at INSEAD, co-editor of the Report, explained: "The Networked Readiness Index (NRI) has evolved into an accepted global benchmark of an economy's preparation to participate in and benefit from information and communication technology developments.

The Global Information Technology Report 2004-2005 consists of three main parts: the first part presents several analytical studies related to aspects of ICT development, including a case study on Taiwan's impressive emergence over the last 20 years as one of the world's leading manufacturers of ICT products.

The second part contains detailed country profiles providing a snapshot of each country's level of ICT development; and the third consists of data tables with country rankings for each variable comprised by the Index.

The overall main index of the Report, the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), measures the propensity for countries to exploit the opportunities offered by ICT and establishes a broad international framework mapping out the enabling factors of such capacity.