NIGERIA'S CONNECTIVITY INDEX DROPS

LAGOS - Nigeria's connectivity index score card went all-time low to 1.09 per cent, according to a recent study, known as Connectivity Scorecard, by  a Fellow of the London Business School, Professor Leonard Waverman.

The study said Nigeria retains 23rd position among the resource and efficiency-driven economies on the Connectivity Scorecard 2011 index.

This means that between 2009 and 2010, Nigeria maintained a stagnated infrastructure growth, retaining 23rd position even when mobile penetration grew from 49 per cent in 2009 to 57 per cent in 2010.

Reacting to the result of the study, Information and Communications Technology ICT, infrastructure providers, Nokia Siemens, weekend, hinted that Nigeria needed active participation of its public sector to grow the country's ICT infrastructure to the level that can sustain the economy outside oil.

The company, through its Country Director, Dr. Raphael Udogu, spoke  at a ceremony at Ikoyi, Lagos, to mark the opening of its Nigerian office.

According to Udogu, one of the problems mitigating against the growth of infrastructure in Nigeria is the low participation of the country's public sector.

He noted that while mobile penetration was growing in appreciable form, the country's infrastructural development was still at low ebb because the public sector was sitting tight on almost all areas of ICT participation.