MEA IoT spending to see double-digit growth: IDC

Spending on Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) is set to top $8.47 billion this year, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). IoT spending in the MEA region will grow 15.9% year-on-year in 2019 and reach $17.63 billion by 2023 as governments and businesses ramp up their investments in digital transformation projects.

“IoT adoption in the MEA region is expected to accelerate over the coming years as organisations from both the public and private sectors look to improve their provision of customer services, expedite decision making, improve the quality of products and services, accelerate their time to market, reduce costs and increase productivity,” says Krishna, programme manager for telecommunications and IoT at IDC MEA. “And as organisations continue to reap the value generated by IoT, we can expect to see further development of innovative industry-specific solutions.”

The big four countries in the region, namely Saudi Arabia ($1.49 billion), the UAE ($0.65 billion), Turkey ($1.24 billion) and South Africa ($1.9 billion) are expected to account for 62% of total IoT expenditure in the MEA region in 2019. The industries that are expected to spend the most on IoT solutions in 2019 are manufacturing ($1.52 billion), government ($1.11 billion), consumer ($1.09billion), transportation ($1.06 billion) and utilities ($0.73 billion).

The IoT use cases that IDC expects to attract the largest investments in 2019 are manufacturing operations ($0.58 billion), smart grid electricity ($0.57 billion), production asset management ($0.53 billion), smart home ($0.44 billion), fleet management ($0.44 billion) and freight monitoring ($0.42 billion). IDC forecasts that the top use cases will retain their positions through 2023, with the exception of fleet management and freight monitoring, which are expected to swap their positions. The use cases that will see the fastest spending growth over the 2018-2023 forecast period are airport facility automation (41.1% CAGR), electric vehicle charging (31.3% CAGR), health and wellness (28.9% CAGR), smart building (26.2% CAGR) and smart grids for water (25.2% CAGR).

“Ongoing national transformation programs and digital transformation projects will continue to fuel IoT adoption over the coming 12 months, particularly in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. As such, these two countries are expected to contribute a combined $2.13 billion of the MEA region’s total IoT spending of $8.47 billion in 2019,” Krishna added.