The IDC anticipates a 2,5% to 3% growth in IT spend in the MEA (Middle East and Africa) market in 2018, driven chiefly by 3rd platform technologies and the advent of 'innovation accelerators' including IOT, analytics, AI and cognitive computing.

At the company's market outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa in 2018, presented in Johannesburg yesterday, Jyoti Lalchandani, Group Vice President, Regional Managing Director, Middle East, Africa & Turkey at IDC said the company anticipates moderate economic growth, with the Sub-Saharan market paying more attention to 3rd platform technologies in the areas of software, security and services as digital transformation remains critical to the reworked customer experience.

"Moving forward we believe a lot of the investments around digital transformation is going to be about data monetisation, how to create new revenue streams and leverage data as a competitive advantage," said Lalchandani.

He added, "In terms of technology investments, the areas we are seeing significant amount of investments and demand is around these third platform technologies ... so around cloud predominantly as software as a service. On the analytics side, a lot of the investments are predictive ... in many countries there will be a significant transition to what we've defined as 'cognitive' as well. A lot of investment is now moving towards these third platform technologies and innovation accelerators."

Software and services have been identified as major growth drivers as businesses transition from infrastructure building to actually using the infrastructure, said Lalchandani, adding that there is five to eight times more growth in software on the cloud than what is reflected by on-premise.

IDC research shows that although in 2017 there has been recovery in terms of IT spend, it ultimately fell back to 2015 levels, which meant the margin was relatively small.

Channel impact

The expectation is that the 'integrated ICT' model will come to the fore this year as telcos continue their transformation into ICT operators and this will have a profound impact on the ICT services and supply channel.

Digital transformation is expected to pose several interesting challenges for technology vendors and other service providers in the channel. "It is going to change the way you look at selling products and services to new sets of buyers in organisations. So the KPIs of the customer, we think is going to be less around managing cultural risk and more towards how to create new revenue streams for the business," Lalchandani added.

According to the IDC, public cloud spending in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META) market is predicted to cross US$1bn this year, with big data & analytics expected to tip US$2.4b.

Mark Walker, Associated Vice President, Sub-Saharan Africa, IDC, said the company believes digital transformation will be at the core of national development strategies.

He described the Africa market as exciting, challenging and rich in resources and opportunity, but one that continues to be constrained by tech issues including connectivity, internet usage/ penetration, as well as corruption and mismanagement.

"Africa is an exciting spot, we all agree on that, there is a tech revolution ... we are in a position where the African technology revolution can happen. The concept of leapfrogging technology that can have huge social, political and economic impact is a reality now. But corruption is an issue ... technology can help, can make things more transparent, more obvious and shine the light on areas that require more light," said Walker.

In terms of IT spend, the IDC presented the following figures: Nigeria US$1.9b, Ethiopia US$0.3b, SA US$9.4b, Uganda US$0.2b and Ghana US$0.48.