•Ranks 86th out of 117 globally, 7th in Africa

•Drops 4 points compared to  2021 survey

•Weak internet, high cost of broadband contributing factors

By Juliet Umeh

Despite adding Digital Economy to the Ministry of Communications, Nigeria is still to come to par with countries that elevate citizens’ lives with digital dividends.

As the ranking for digital quality of life index is released, the country  ranks abysmally 86th out of 117 countries in the world.

The study was conducted by a cybersecurity company Surfshark through its Digital Quality of Life Index, DQL 2022.

The DQL evaluates countries based on five fundamental digital wellbeing pillars which include: internet quality, e-government, e-infrastructure, internet affordability and e-security.

The report revealed that at the rank, Nigeria dropped by four points compared to the 2021 survey, falling from 82nd to 86th.

Head of Public Relation at Surfshark, Gabriele Racaityte-Krasauske, said that Nigeria’s e-government services come in 95th position, while Internet quality and e-security rank 99th and 66th, respectively.

Speaking on the fundamental digital life pillars, it explained that internet quality in Nigeria is very weak; it is not affordable compared to global standards.

It also stated that the global digital divide is now deeper than ever while the country is rated as the best and the worst countries to live in by the digital quality of life.

Out of the five fundamental digital life pillars, Nigeria’s worst score is for internet affordability, ranking 114th globally and the best is for e-security, 66th. Nigeria’s e-infrastructure services came 86th, while e-government and internet quality rank 95th and 99th, respectively.

The report says: “Out of all index pillars, Nigeria’s weakest spot is internet affordability, which needs to improve by 13970 percent to match the best-ranking country’s result, Israel.

Weak internet: “Nigeria’s internet quality, considering internet speed, stability, and growth, ranks 99th in the world and is 26 percent worse than the global average. Regarding internet speed alone, Nigeria’s mobile internet ranks higher than fixed broadband in the global ranking, operating at 25.2 Mbps/s (92nd globally). Meanwhile, the fixed broadband internet comes 102nd (18.9 Mbps/s).

Internet affordability: “Nigeria’s internet affordability ranks 114th in the world. Residents can buy 1GB of mobile internet in Nigeria for 15 minutes of work per month, two times more than in Kenya. Its affordability decreased since the previous year, making people work 13 minutes and 16 seconds more to afford the same mobile internet service.”

Digital divide:

“Globally, broadband is getting less affordable each year. Looking at countries included in last year’s index, people have to work six minutes more to afford broadband internet in 2022. In some countries, such as Ivory Coast and Uganda, people work an average of two weeks to earn the cheapest fixed broadband internet package.

“The same trend was observed last year. With the current inflation, the pressure on low-income households that need the internet has become even heavier.”

Best & worst to live:

The survey explained that: “Overall, seven out of 10 highest-scoring countries are in Europe, which has been the case for the past three years. Israel ranked 1st in DQL 2022 pushing Denmark to second place after its two-year lead. Germany ranks 3rd, and France and Sweden round up the top five of the 117 evaluated nations. Congo DR, Yemen, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Cameroon are the bottom five countries.”