Nigeria has been ranked fourth in smartphone connection on the continent by the latest report by Informa, industry-based analysts group.
The report which queries the mobile connectivity of African
countries was tagged “Mobilizing public services in Africa” readiness index.
With the report made available to ITRealms Online by the
Public Relations manager, Informa Telecoms & Media, Denise Duffy, Nigeria
is behind South Africa, Egypt and Kenya on smartphone penetration in the
highest order.
This trend, Informa noted will continue in the next five
years, that is, 2016.
The report also noted that though the mobile device market
is maturing and smartphone penetration will accelerate the limited
functionality of entry level handsets is an inhibitor to the potential of
mobile government services.
Informa further said that however, the smartphone market is
set to grow in Africa too.
According to projections by Informa, over a third of mobile
connections in South Africa will be via smartphones by the end of 2016, and
this figure will be in excess of 15 per cent in Egypt, Kenya and Nigeria.
“This provides far greater flexibility to what can be achieved
by mobile government,” part of the report read.
Meanwhile, the white paper on “Mobilizing public services in
Africa” which was released officially at the recently concluded AfricaCom 2011
in Cape Town, South Africa, ranked South Africa ahead of
Kenya and Egypt as the
African country most ready nation to embrace mobile government services.
Despite South Africa’s appearance at the top of the index,
According to the report co-authored by Nick Jotischky and
Sheridan Nye, noted that until now mobile government implementations have been
far slower to take off there than in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.
These East African countries have been quicker to realize
the benefits to citizens and small businesses; agricultural advice, payment of
utility bills, commodity pricing information) of delivering public services
using cellular technologies.
They pointed out that e-government is being seen
increasingly by African governments as a source of economic, social and
political development that encourages greater citizen engagement and improves
access to services.
Also, they underscored the fact that two-thirds of
respondents to a C-level industry survey that Informa recently commissioned
believed e-government services are still under-developed in Africa.
As said by Jotischky it is striking when looking at
e-government strategies in Africa that there is no clear articulation of the
role mobile devices can play in the spread of e-government services.
Given the importance of mobile in Africa’s economy and
culture over the last decade, Jotischky said, this appeared strange.
“After all, not only does the continuing growth in wireless
access ensure a wide audience reach, but messaging and data usage trends
suggest many consumers in Africa are already using mobile for a variety of
purposes,” Nick said.
The mobile device market, the author said, has continued to
mature and smartphone penetration is accelerating.
Informa projects that by 2016 over a third of mobile
connections in South Africa will be via smartphones.
The report equally noted that many of the mobile government
services already implemented are in east and North Africa.
Most of these services, the authors foresee as being
directed at citizens and businesses but as yet, governments have not used
mobile technology as a way of overhauling internal processes and providing more
flexibility to their workforces.
Commenting also, Nye was quoted as saying that technology
providers Africa the opportunity to enable mobile government by encouraging the
migration of public sector services to the cloud.
“Virtualisation of infrastructure and flexible, usage-based
pricing would allow government agencies to pay for what they need and flex
costs accordingly to match demand. Mobility services should form an integrated
part of the public sector’s cloud migration,” he said.
ITRealms Online gathered that Informa’s mobile government
readiness index is based on the following indicators mobile penetration; Third
Generation (3G) penetration; mobile broadband penetration forecasts; proportion
of population living in rural areas; the size of public sector as a per cent of
Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as well as the United Nations (UN’s) e-Government
Readiness Index; fixed broadband penetration and literacy rates.
The index excluded countries with a population less than 5
million.
Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
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