…surpasses South Africa to top e-security list
By Ibiyemi Mathew
A recent survey has revealed that Nigeria dropped by one place in the third annual edition of the Digital Quality of Life Index (DQL). The report reveals that Nigeria ranks 82nd among 110 countries.
Covering 90% of the global population, the DQL study is conducted by the cybersecurity company Surfshark, and evaluates countries based on a set of five fundamental digital wellbeing pillars.
Nigeria lags with internet affordability (ranks 107th),e-government (95th), and e-infrastructure (90th), but shows similarity with the global average results in internet quality (56th) and e-security (46th).
Nigeria’s digital quality of life remains similar to last year’s. Despite the slight fall in the leaderboard, the country comes first in Western Africa and shows slightly better results in some pillars than the global average.
The report also revealed that its e-security is among the TOP 50 worldwide, surpassing Africa’s DQL leader South Africa.
“The country ranks 56th in the internet quality index due to low internet speeds. The country has one of the slowest broadband connection speeds globally (13.45 Mbps), ranking 105th, and slightly faster mobile internet (17.91 Mbps), ranking 96th.”
However, the report also showed that Nigeria’s broadband speed growth is one of the fastest on the planet, ranking 16th.
The study shows that Nigeria’s internet affordability is 90% worse than the global average: “People in Nigeria have to work the most time in the world – more than 35 hours – to afford the cheapest broadband internet.
“Digital opportunities have proved to be more important than ever during the COVID-19 crisis, stressing the importance for every country to ensure fully remote operational capacities for their economies,” explains Vytautas Kaziukonis, CEO of Surfshark.
“That is why, for the third year in a row, we continue the Digital Quality of Life research, which provides a robust global outlook into how countries excel digitally. The index sets the basis for meaningful discussions about how digital advancement impacts a country’s prosperity and where improvements can be made.
“The 2021 DQL research examined a total population of more than 6.9 billion people in terms of five core pillars and 14 underpinning indicators that provide a comprehensive measure. The study is based on open-source information provided by the United Nations, the World Bank,Freedom House, the International Communications Union, and other sources.”
The final 2021 Digital Quality of Life report and an interactive country comparison tool can be found here: https://www.surfshark.com/dql2021.