Govt’s inaction shut billions out of Internet access – A4AI Report
The 2017 Affordability Report released by Alliance for an Affordable Internet (A4AI) has indicated that billions are shut out of internet access by government inaction.
The report also tracks policy progress toward affordable internet across 58 low- and middle-income countries.
Communications Manager, Alliance for an Affordable Internet (A4AI), Lauran Potter stated that the report discovered that governments are failing their citizens when it comes to providing affordable internet access, adding that “just 19 countries surveyed have “affordable” internet access, while the policies have barely changed since this research series started in 2014.
They noticed that nearly half the countries surveyed have badly outdated or non-existent plans to guide broadband development, while public funds to expand access to the disconnected, if they exist, are sitting dormant in over a third of countries.
In this year’s Affordability Drivers Index which measures the policies in place to enable affordable access ranks Nigeria 13th out of 58.
However, the last year’s report indicated a miss on the global target of universal, affordable access by over 20 years, while this year’s report also confirmed that government inaction has remained a threat to entrench the digital divide and worsen global inequality.
In view of this, A4AI urged the leaders to take crucial action to reverse this course and enable access for the over 4 billion offline as at the time of releasing the report.
