South Africa slid five places to 75th in the World Economic Forum (WEF’s) global information and communication technology (ICT) rankings.

This emerges from WEF’s Information Technology Report 2015, which contains a Networked Readiness Index (NRI) ranking. “Despite a score unchanged from last year, South Africa loses five positions to settle at 75th place in this edition. The country’s overall political and business environment remains one of its strengths (31st). In contrast, the general state of ICT readiness remains very low (102nd), the result of the poor quality of ICT-related infrastructure (85th), notably the limited international Internet bandwidth (128th),” WEF said in the report.

The space between South Africa and other competing countries from Africa is also gradually shrinking. According to the index, Kenya, east Africa’s fastest growing economy, has soared six places to 86 on the index.

South Africa is now third in Africa after Mauritius, which stands at number 45, with Seychelles at number 74. Mauritius, however, is Africa’s sole representative in top 50. Africa has only six countries in the top 100.

The ranking gauges the ability of 143 economic markets to harness the potentials inherent in ICT for social and economic impact. It uses key market elements like the regulatory and political environment, infrastructure and digital content and usage of ICT to measure the performance of each country.