MENA IT spending to reach $160 bln in 2019: Gartner

IT spending in the MENA region is expected to grow by 1.8 percent year-on-year to hit $160 billion this year, Gartner, a research and advisory company, said in a recent report.

“In 2019, businesses in MENA are set to increase their IT spending in all segments except for the devices segment,” said John Lovelock, distinguished research vice president at Gartner.

The 1.8 percent growth rate this year will place MENA seventh out of the 11 regions tracked by Gartner this year.

Consumer spending in MENA reached a tipping point, with consumers expected to spend $532 million on upgrading or replacing their mobile phones this year, Gartner said, adding the spend on mobile services will reach $63.7 billion in 2019, up $1 billion from 2018.

In the enterprise sector, organizations are increasing their spending on software, which continues to be the fastest growing sector. Despite the rapid growth of software as a service in the region (25.8 percent in 2019), the region is below the global average for the percentage of total cloud spending.

“The MENA region is not expected to reach the level of cloud usage that the United States had in 2017 until the end of 2022,” said Lovelock.

Meanwhile, banking and securities industry is projected to total $13.2 billion in 2019, the largest IT spending among 11 industries. It will also report the fastest growth rate at 5 percent year over year.

“Banks in MENA must keep investing in IT in order to participate in the international banking system. At the same time, IT security has always been on the radar and has now become the No. 1 priority for senior banking executives,” said Miriam Burt, managing research vice president, Gartner.

The transportation, education and wholesale trade sectors are on pace to achieve growth of 1 percent, 2.4 percent and 2.8 percent this year, respectively, and will be the three industries achieving the weakest IT spending growth rates this year, said Gartner.