Mauritius has again been named the African country with the highest development index suggesting that the country’s revamp of its ICT industry has been successful.
In addition to its three telecom companies, Mauritius has a new techno park, a third submarine fibre optic cable as well as enhanced integration of ICT and business in the country is boosting competitiveness in the Information Technology sector.
“Mauritius continues to retain the highest ICT development index (IDI) rank (out of countries in southern Africa) and the highest networked readiness index (NRI) rank in the Southern African region,” says a research report on the southern African region telecommunications sector posted on reportbuyer.com.
ITWebAfrica reported this is in line with the Smart Mauritius Strategy that the government is pushing through. The World Economic Forum last year identified Mauritius as the third best country when it comes to telecom and internet connectivity costs in its Global Information Technology Report.
However, the report says Mauritius scores low in infrastructure and digital content after it scored 77 out of 140 countries in the rankings.
Although Mauritius has made strides, the report also identifies South Africa and Botswana as having advanced telecommunications markets.
It adds that “the launch of internet exchange points (IXPs) in Namibia and Swaziland” aimed at efficient management of “internet traffic and converged licensing policies that are pushing telecommunications service providers to offer Internet services are among the key trends” shaping the internet services market in Southern Africa.
