Zimbabwe ranks poor in Africa in media index

ZIMBABWE has been ranked number 12 out of 14 countries in the Africa Media Index, a study which provides insights on trends and knowledge of the media sector and how it affects investment, governance, local business and economies.

The Africa Media Index, comprising data from Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Namibia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Botswana, Angola and Ethiopia, identifies trends that are relevant to industry investors looking to increase their footprint and reach multiple audiences in a meaningful way across the continent.

It focuses on five key categories — economy and business, media landscape, media consumers, technology as well as governance and legislation.

On economy and business, Zimbabwe scored 41,63 points and became number 11; on media landscape the country scored 24,71 and became number 12; on media consumers the southern African nation got 43,94 points and became number 10.

Furthermore, on technology the country scooped 33,38 points, securing number 9 and on governance and legislation the country occupied number 12 after scoring 46,80 points.

South Africa tops each of the five categories and is first in the overall rankings.

Ghana comes in second in the overall rankings, followed by Botswana. Mozambique is last in the overall rankings.

For economy and business, various economic and business factors were weighed to achieve a country score that best reflects the status of economic performance.

For media landscape, a country score combines the availability of media and internet penetration with its prevalence geographically, to reflect how diverse and influential the media sector is in that country.

The third dimension is a measure of a country's media consumer population in terms of access to and integration with local and international media.

Technology's availability and penetration is ascertained to quantify a country's capacity to provide the necessary infrastructure for media dissemination.

Governance and legislation is a numeric representation of a country's governing and legislative framework and its interaction with media consumers, commerce, technology and the media landscape.

In a statement, GroupM sub-Saharan Africa chief executive officer Federico de Nardis said Africa was still struggling to attract significant advertising investments.
"Sub-Saharan Africa hosts 17% of the world's population, but represents only 2% of the world's gross domestic product. In terms of advertising investment, it represents only 0,47% of global investments," he said.

"This is mainly because Africa is made up of many different countries with many different cultures and languages, unstable rules and regulatory environments, and a historic lack of data to help understand the marketplace."