India has overtaken the United States to become the world’s second largest Internet market, with 333 million users, trailing China’s 721 million.
But a new report released by the UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development also confirms that just six nations – including China and India – together account for 55% of the total global population still offline, because of the sheer size of their populations.
While Internet access is approaching saturation in richer nations, connectivity is still not advancing fast enough to help bridge development gaps in areas like education and health care for those in poorer parts of the world, according to the 2016 edition of The State of Broadband report.
Globally, an estimated 3.9 billion people are not using the Internet. But the Commission’s new report estimates that, between them, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria account for 55% of all unconnected people, while 20 countries – including the US – account for a full 75% of those not using the Internet.
These findings suggest that targeted efforts in just a few key markets could help enormously in redressing the gaping ‘digital divide’ between those who are online and those still offline.
Released just ahead of the 14th meeting of the Commission in New York on September 18, The State of Broadband 2016 is optimistic about the potential of mobile broadband, with 165 countries now having deployed ‘4G’ high-speed mobile networks. As smartphone penetration reaches near-saturation in the US, Europe and mature markets in Asia like Japan and Korea, India and Indonesia in particular are expected to drive future growth. India also recently overtook the US to become the world’s second-largest smartphone market, with an estimated 260 million mobile broadband subscriptions.
The Commission argues that if today’s near-universal basic mobile phone access could be converted to high-speed mobile broadband access, mobile phones could serve as a major accelerator of development, driving rapid progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
“There is a large body of economic evidence for the role of affordable broadband connectivity as a vital enabler of economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection,” said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao, who serves as co-Vice Chair of the Commission with UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova. “The Sustainable Development Goals for education, gender equality and infrastructure include bold targets for information and communication technology. The SDGs are achievable, but require urgent efforts and progress in the speed, degree and equality of development. The Commission believes this can be realized through broadband.”
“Broadband technologies can be powerful development multipliers,” Director-General Bokova added, “but this requires combined investments in access and in skills and in education. This is about opening new paths to create and share knowledge. It is about enhancing freedom of expression and about widening learning opportunities, especially for girls and women. This is about developing content that is relevant, local and multilingual.”
Issued annually, The State of Broadband report is a unique global snapshot of broadband network access and affordability, with country-by country data measuring broadband access against key advocacy targets set by the Commission in 2011.
The report confirms that according to latest ITU figures, by end 2016 3.5 billion people will be using the Internet, up from 3.2 billion last year and equating to 47% of the global population. Progress in the 48 UN-designated Least Developed Countries has been encouraging, with the Commission’s target of 15% of the LDC population onlineexpected to be reached by the end of this year.
This year’s figures show that, once again, the top ten developing countries for household Internet penetration are all located in Asia or the Middle East. The Republic of Korea continues to have the world’s highest household Internet penetration, with 98.8% of homes connected; Qatar (96%) and United Arab Emirates (95%) rank second and third, respectively.
Iceland continues to have the highest percentage of individuals using the Internet (98.2%), while Luxembourg (97.3%) has surpassed Norway to take second place, and Andorra (97%) takes third place from Denmark.
Monaco remains very slightly ahead of Switzerland as the world leader in fixed broadband penetration, at over 47 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants compared with the Swiss figure of 45%. There are now seven economies (Monaco, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Denmark, the Netherlands, France and the Republic of Korea) where fixed broadband penetration exceeds 40%, up from six countries in 2014 and just one nation (Switzerland) in 2012.
Finland has the world’s highest percentage of active mobile broadband subscriptions, with 144 subscriptions per 100 people, followed by Singapore (142) and Kuwait (139). The Asia-Pacific region accounts for nearly half (48%) of all active mobile broadband subscriptions.
In total, there are now 91 economies where over 50% of the population is online, up from 79 in 2015. But whereas in 2014 the top ten countries for Internet use were all located in Europe, this year sees Bahrain (ranked 7th) and Japan (ranked 9th) join the group. The lowest levels of Internet usage are found in sub-Saharan Africa, with less than 3% of the population using the Internet in a number of countries including Chad (2.7%), Sierra Leone (2.5%), Niger (2.2%), Somalia (1.8%) and Eritrea (1.1%).

His Excellency, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa of Delta State of Delta State make history recently as perhaps the first and only state governor in the Federal Republic of Nigeria to acquire the e-Government certification.

In line with Global standards, 21st century leadership and century leadership and governance is incomplete, inadequate and indeed governance is incomplete, inadequate and indeed unproductive  without digital proficiency in e-Government.

Global assumptions on the emerging information society (IS), point to the fact that the ICT Policy and e-Government Domain will be the main battle field for 21st Century globalization, democratic government and national survivability.

This “paradigm shift” makes the education of future leaders is of high priority and a strategic imperative for all nations – as we approach the critical path of the 21 st century. This e-Government Leadership Certificate Program for the Political Class is designed to assist policy and decision makers achieve a dynamic and positive solution to crisis-prone challenges in governance.

According to UNESCO, ‘Government’ refers to the exercise of political, economic and administrative authority in the management of a country’s affairs, including the articulation of citizens’ interests and the exercise of their legal rights and obligations. ((CAFRAD), and UNESCO)

‘e-Government’ should therefore be understood as the art of implementing governance by adopting, deploying and applying Information and Communications Technology to enhance productivity and effective performance – using electronic media facilities and devices to accelerate the efficient, speedy and transparent delivery of information content and Data to business sector, the public and other agencies, and above all, for carrying out government-to-government administrative activities.

e-Government is therefore a new way of formulating, organising and implementing decisions and policies relating to administration, services, public inclusion, participation and citizens safety using ICT as a tool for building trust in governments and improved transparency and service delivery. ((CAFRAD) and UNESCO).

e-Government Certificate Training at Delta State Innovation Hub is a facility for world class e-Government certification training. In order to accelerate the speedy access and diffusion of the benefits of the knowledge economy, it has become critical for both Federal and State governments – through the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) – to make e-Government Certification process mandatory for all current and intending policy makers, civil servants in MDAs and others.

According to the Executive Governor of Delta State – Senator Ifeanyi Okowa in his special remarks, “In driving the State’s economy, we are developing an innovation and science agenda as a key component in bridging the huge gaps and deficiencies in our education, health, industry, entertainment, governance, social and state security systems. The State aims to achieve this through a Private-Public-Partnership model strategy on innovation development. In this regards, we have resolved to partner with Mobile Software Solutions Limited, a renowned content solutions provider in the Information and Communications Technology industry and the winner of World Summit Award 2014 for Africa Best Mobile Content Developer in the Life-Style and Entertainment category. Delta State Innovation Hub – DS-IHUB – can attain noble heights if we put our minds to work. In moving this project forward, we will rely on the support and patronage of Delta State citizens at home and in the Diaspora, entrepreneurs, the academia, students, industry leaders, stakeholders, and indeed, all friends of Delta State, to ensure that this enviable knowledge venture is not only successful, but significantly beneficial to all concerned and sustainable for generations yet unborn. We realize that our success story will be dependent on how much support and partnership we get out there. We must pay glowing tributes as a State to Zenith Bank Plc, for donating this complex, and look forward to partnership with as many that may wish to develop positive minds for our greater tomorrow. Going forward, we will need a framework for innovation development and upscaling.

We will therefore:

I Establish a Delta State Innovation Development Fund – IDF. All donors to this fund will be recognized and honoured.

1. Encourage all youths to acquire computer skills.

iii. Encourage e-governance and digital literacy skills in the civil service and other institutions.

iv. Our land administration is being fully digitalized, with greater ease of doing business.”

Impact investing pioneer, Root Capital announced at the African Green Revolution Forum a new partnership with The MasterCard Foundation that will help raise incomes for over 300,000 smallholder farmers in West Africa.

The Foundation has committed $5.2 million to Root Capital over five years to support early-stage agricultural businesses that generate transformational impact in rural communities in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Senegal.
“With Root Capital we will help to bring much-needed financing and capacity building to businesses in West Africa that work with farmers otherwise excluded from the formal economy,” said Ann Miles, Director of Financial Inclusion and Youth Livelihoods at The MasterCard Foundation. “We see this as a good avenue to help increase incomes and opportunities for 4,000 employees of agricultural businesses, 300,000 smallholder farmers, and over two million farm family members.”
Without access to predictable markets for their crops, small-scale rural farmers are often forced to accept lower prices for their crops and find themselves trapped in a cycle of poverty. While the global credit supply for smallholders has grown in recent years, it is geographically skewed with less than 10 percent of financial flows reaching sub-Saharan Africa.
Over the seven years that Root Capital has worked in West Africa, it has provided loans of between $50,000 and $2 million to 52 agricultural businesses that have raised incomes for nearly 12,000 employees and over 190,000 smallholder farmers.

Root Capital has also scaled its advisory program in the region, offering agricultural business leaders a suite of training modules to develop the leadership and financial management skills they need to grow and sustain their businesses.
“With the support of The MasterCard Foundation, Root Capital will be able to increasingly target earlier-stage businesses in West Africa that operate on the fringes of financial inclusion – businesses that demonstrate potential to grow and generate increased impact,” said Diaka Sall, Root Capital’s General Manager for West Africa.
Specifically, Root Capital will collaborate with The MasterCard Foundation to:

• Accelerate the bankability and growth of more than 100 high-impact, early-stage agricultural businesses with capital needs under $150,000 and/or business revenues under $300,000;
• Pilot an expanded set of advisory services, including leadership development of agribusiness employees; financial literacy training for smallholder farmers; mobile technology and mobile money; and empowering local microfinance institutions to better serve the agricultural sector; and
• Contribute to sector learning by developing a framework for documenting and analysing the costs and impacts associated with early business growth in the agricultural sector.

This initiative will help address the urgent need of early-stage West African agribusinesses for capital and capacity building. With an estimated 48 million small-holder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, however, who remain disconnected from such businesses and the stable sources of income they offer, a great deal of work remains to be done.