Islands Mauritius and Seychelles are edging out bigger African countries when it comes their state of information and communications technology (ICT) sectors.

This is according to the World Economic Forum (WEF) Networked Readiness Index (NRI) 2014, which ranks 148 countries based on their capacity to exploit opportunities offered by the digital age.

Up to 54 indicators assessed on the index range from factors such as political, regulatory, and business and innovation environments to infrastructure, affordability and skills.

And according to the index, Mauritius has jumped seven places from position 55 in 2013 to 48 this year.

The next highest African nation on the list is Seychelles, which has leaped from position 79 in 2013 to 66 in 2014.

World Bank figures point to how Mauritius only has a 1.2 million population while less than 90,000 people live in the Seychelles.

Yet these two tiny island nations are leading Africa when it comes to ICT, as bigger countries like South Africa ranks 70 on the index, Egypt ranks 91, Kenya ranks 92 and Nigeria 112.

“Mauritius recovers the ground lost last year and moves up seven positions to attain 48th place. Gains across the board — most notably in terms of a better ICT infrastructure and skills base, along with a higher level of individual usage — have led this improvement,” says the WEF report.

“Overall, the (Mauritius) government’s vision (31st) to develop ICTs as a key sector to support the economic development of the island, coupled with a positive political and regulatory environment, have resulted in improvements in an affordable (11th) ICT infrastructure and higher levels of ICT users, even if less than half of its population uses the Internet or has a computer with an Internet connection at home,” adds the report.

The report goes on to highlight how big African nations such as South Africa remain unchanged on the index.

“Despite some important improvements in the penetration of ICTs among individuals, which is reflected in a higher NRI score, South Africa remains stable at 70th place.

“In the past year, an expensive (112th) ICT infrastructure (68th) has exhibited little progress. In using ICTs, the business community (30th) seems to have taken the lead, using ICTs vigorously in interactions with other businesses (30th); this business-to-business use seems much more developed than interactions with consumers (62nd). On the other hand, the government (103rd) lags substantially behind in embracing ICTs, offering few online services (80th), which in turn results in low social impacts (113th). Weaknesses in the innovation system, notably in terms of skills development (97th), also affect the country’s economic potential (49th) despite its fairly robust political and regulatory environment,” notes the report.

Regarding Kenya, the report notes that “despite some very significant efforts to boost its
ICT infrastructure and ICT uptake by its population, Kenya remains stable at 92nd place.”

Other commentary regarding Kenya’s NRI are also made in comparison to nearby East African neighbours.

“As in the case of Rwanda, despite a strong government vision (26th) to develop ICTs, the actual uptake by its (Kenya’s) population (113rd) continues to remain very low, albeit increasing: only around 10 percent of households have a computer (113th) or an Internet connection (103rd). Weaknesses in the innovation and entrepreneurial environment (110th) and a fairly low skills base (98th) also affect the capacity of the country to fully achieve the potential benefits accruing from ICTs,” says the WEF.

Other data on the NRI list points to Rwanda ranked overall at 85, Tunisia at 87, Ghana at 96 and Morocco at 99. Lower down the list Zambia ranks at 110, Uganda at 115, and Tanzania at 125.

Like last year’s NRI list; though, African nations dominate ten worst performing countries.

In this regard, Libya ranks at 138, Madagascar at 139, Mauritania at 142, Angola at 144, Guinea at 145, Burundi 147 and Chad stone-last at 148.

The WEF notes that while ICT progress in Africa has been made, significant challenges exist.

“Sub-Saharan Africa slowly continues to develop its ICT infrastructure, especially by expanding the share of the population covered by, and having access to, mobile telephony and by expanding the number of Internet users, which in some countries—such as South Africa—has almost doubled,” notes the WEF.

“Notwithstanding this progress, the region overall continues to suffer from a relatively poor ICT infrastructure, which remains costly to access, although some notable exceptions exist.

“More importantly, severe weaknesses persist in the region’s business and innovation ecosystems, which result in very low positive economic and social impacts. Addressing these weaknesses, not only by developing a more solid ICT infrastructure but also by improving the framework conditions for innovation and entrepreneurship, will be crucial to avoid the emergence of a new digital divide that will be evident in a disparity of the economic and social impacts associated with what has been called the digital revolution,” says the report.

Overall, the top ten countries in the NRI list remains largely unchanged with 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.