Industry analysts have forecast growth within Kenya's ICT market in 2017, spurred by connectivity and convergence that will lead to disruptive IoT (Internet of Things) solutions.

According to Frost & Sullivan's Kenya ICT Outlook 2017, the East African country's IT service providers are expected to take advantage of big data analytics and IoT, while telecommunications providers will continue to establish themselves in the broadcasting, cloud and IoT segments.

Deepti Dhinakaran, Frost & Sullivan Digital Transformation Research Analyst, says, "Along with innovation, service diversification, network sharing, strategic partnerships, business realignment and acquisitions will also play a key role in defining the market leader in the next five years. Providers should seek to gain a first-mover advantage by adapting to market needs and emerging disruptive technologies in an intensely competitive market."

The global research and analysis firm says affordable internet and smartphone adoption has made a significant impact on ICT service provision and application.

This progress has also been highlighted in other industry reports, including the African Digitalisation Maturity Report released by global tech company Siemens.

The report measures the extent to which each country has a business, legal and regulatory environment that supports and protects the development of digitalization in key industries. This includes indicators such as the overall ease of doing business, the presence and regulation of ICT-related laws, the protection of intellectual property and evidence of ICT-related innovation and start-up activities.

According to the Report Kenya is ahead in terms of digital maturity.

"This is attributed to the country having far more extensive ICT infrastructure and mobile internet or 3G infrastructure to access and secondly because it is much more diverse and services-oriented economy, which typically drives the expansion of digital services," says Siemens.

The upward trajectory has also become evident within the country's e-commerce segment.

Recently Coin.dance, which monitors and produces community-driven Bitcoin statistics and services, reported that weekly LocalBitcoins volume of Bitcoin transaction in Kenya reached an all-time-high of KSh11.4 million (about US$110,000) in the week of December 3, 2016 which, when compared to a volume of KSh1.4 million in the first week of the year, shows the East African country's market has moved at a ten times rate in a year.

As far as Kenya's 2017 outlook is concerned, Frost & Sullivan say growth will be augmented by falling mobile data prices, availability of cheaper digital terrestrial television services, growing demand for Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), an increase in consumption of managed services, big data analytics and IoT services.

"Non-voice services, DTT, the demand for network and application services, high-value niche service segments like market research and analytics, and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) services will indicate upward growth trends in Kenya," added Dhinakaran. "Furthermore, vertical-specific IoT solutions will transform agriculture, government, and public sectors."