A new World Bankworld World w wereport says the global digital landscape remains uneven and is becoming synonymous with a development divide.
This is contained in a statement issued by the World Bank on its new “Digital Progress and Trends Report 2023″, a copy of which was obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday.
The statement said the report tracked global progress of digitalisation and countries’ production and use of digital technologies, from digital jobs, digital services exports, and app development to internet use, affordability, quality, and more.
It said that the COVID-19 pandemic brought about unprecedented acceleration of digital transformation across the globe, with spikes in data traffic, app usage, IT sector growth, digital business resilience, and much more.
It noted that all countries saw a significant uptick in digital adoption.
It, however, said that the gains in low-income countries were not enough to keep the gap with high-income countries from growing or to close the digital divide within their borders.
” In low-income countries, only one in four people are able to access the internet.
“Gaps in internet speed, data traffic, and digital use are hampering digital gains for individuals and firms in low- and middle-income countries.
“The use of digital technologies during the pandemic, led to a surge in data traffic, driven by video streaming,” it said.
The statement added that the average mobile broadband traffic per capita in richer countries surpassed that in low-income countries 20 times more, and fixed broadband traffic by more than 1,700 times.
It said in 2023, median fixed and mobile broadband speeds were five to 10 times faster in high-income countries than in low-income countries.
“Still, prices remained much higher for the poor, with the median fixed broadband prices in low-income countries accounting for one-third of monthly income in 2022.
” Even the cheapest smart phone accounts for more than 14 per cent of annual income for persons living on less than two dollars a day.
“Today, connectivity is most expensive in Africa, while uptake of digital financial services is lowest in the Middle East and North Africa region.”
The report, according to the statement, discovered that where digitalisation takes off, it drives economic growth, employment, and resilience.
It said the information technology (IT) services sector grew nearly twice as fast as the global economy between 2000 and 2022.
” Over the same period, employment in digital services grew seven per cent annually, six times higher than total employment growth.
” During the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses that had invested in digital solutions only lost half the level of sales relative to non-digitally enabled firms.”
It said: “Two clear trends have emerged that are shaping our digital future: the importance of digital public infrastructure and the transformative emergence of artificial intelligence.”
It said the report highlighted two clear emerging trends that were reshaping the global digital future.
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