Denis Opudo
The Internet of Things (IoT) involves networking of devices and connecting them to the internet so that one can control them in a remote location. The application of IoT in various industries continues to spring up with innovative solutions coming in the market.
IoT market in Africa and the Middle East expects a growth of 15% in 2018. If this occurs, the value of IoT will increase from $6.07 billion in 2017 to $6.99 billion. Besides, the value of IoT in the United Arabs Emirates (UAE) in 2017 stood at $500 million and from by approximation, in 2021 it will hit $900 million. The projections also indicate that UAE, South Africa, Turkey and Saudi Arabia will account for 58% of the IoT spend in 2021.
Moreover, according to Wale Babalola, by 2021 the regional market value of IoT may hit $12.62 billion. He further added that the popularity of IoT among various organizations in the region keeps rising. Wale Babalola is a research analyst for IoT and telecommunications at International Data Corporation (IDC).
Paul Black, a program director for networking and telecoms at IDC also shared the same sentiments as Wale. According to Paul, the expenditure on IoT by 2020 will exceed $10 billion in the region. Moreover, he predicted that the main sectors that will utilize IoT include healthcare, manufacturing, utilities, and transportation sectors. Besides, he said that the rolling out of 5G will play a significant role in the growth of IoT.
The regional spend is relatively low since it accounts for approximately 1% of the global spend.
In 2017, healthcare, manufacturing, cross-industry, consumer, and transportation sectors accounted for two-thirds of IoT spend in the region. Paul Black attributed factors such as security, rapid adoption and increased efficiency, intelligent networks as major influencers to penetration of IoT.
In 2018, the experts project that IT and installation services will account for $2.48 billion of expenses. The hardware spend then come second as software and connectivity follow. Moreover, a majority of hardware expenses will go for sensors and modules.
