World Economic Forum: Kenya doing badly on ICT adoption

Students browse the Internet at the California Resource Centre in Kamkunji Constituency during its opening last Friday. Only 17 per cent of Kenyans use the Internet. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

The use of ICT in Kenya is unimpressive going by a new study.

The findings of a survey by the World Economic Forum shows that the country’s ICT adoption ranks badly, bursting the bubble that Nairobi is Africa’s Silicon Savannah.

Kenya was ranked a distant 113 on ICT adoption in the study that rated the competitiveness of 140 countries. The Global Competitiveness Report, 2018, also looked at the performance in institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic stability, health and skills.

Other pillars included product market, labour market, financial system, market size, business dynamism and innovation capability. ICT adoption was the country’s worst performer while the labour market, at position 60, was its best.

While the country’s internet connectivity has improved over time, the report found that few Kenyans have access to faster fibre internet. “On average, only one person for a population of 1,000 has access to fibre internet while six use fixed broadband internet,” read the report in part. Yet, a report last year created a buzz, claiming that that average internet connection speeds in Kenya were better than Australia’s. The report showed that since 2013, when Kenya implemented its own National Broadband Strategy, its average connection speed jumped from 4.46 Megabits per second (Mbps) to 12.2Mbps in the first quarter of 2017 compared to Australia’s 11.1Mbps

The report’s findings were, however, rubbished by the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in a radio interview. “You know, like, one and a half per cent of the people in Kenya have access to broadband. In Australia, it’s 90 per cent,” said Turnbull. 

“You might have a handful of wealthy people... that have got first-world telecoms, in a country where the vast majority of the people have got no access at all,” he added. For every 100 people, 36 are mobile broadband subscribers, according to the World Economic report. Generally, only 17 per cent of Kenya’s 44 million population uses the Internet.

According to the Communications Authority of Kenya, the number of mobile subscribers stood at 45.5 million as of June this year, representing 97.8 per cent of the population.

The report also found that mobile data subscriptions stand at 40.7 million from 29.4 million recorded over the same period last year. Kenya, which was ranked position 93 overall, scored 70 per cent on macroeconomic stability.