IT Edge ranks top 50 ICT companies in W/Africa

IT Edge News.Com has announced plans to unveil its ranking of top 50 Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) companies in West Africa during a luncheon in Lagos.

Head of IT Edge’s Intelligence Unit, Mr. Segun Oruame, made this known at the weekend, saying that this year’s edition of the West Africa Top 50 Technology Business ceremony has been scheduled to hold on November , 26, this year.

According to him, this year’s Top 50 would be the fourth since 2007 and has been incorporated as part of the IT Edge West Africa 4th Convergence Forum; the annual interactive Forum since 2006 that focuses on Convergence Trends in West Africa, just as the forum has enjoyed the support the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) since 2007 among others.

“This year’s event equally gets the support from the regulatory authorities from Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone,” he said. Oruame noted that the two events are organized by the IT Edge Intelligence Unit (ITE-IU) while the 2010 Convergence Forum has the theme: ‘Driving Convergence through Connectivity Infrastructure’.

This, he said, would underscore the significant entry of Glo-1 and Main One undersea cables in what should radically change broadband connectivity access across West Africa.

“The top 50 rating is an aggregate of companies across West Africa in the technology business sector whose performance in 2006 made the mark on service excellence. The companies were rated on market spread and technical competence, functionality and relevance in terms of customers’ service and contribution to national economy in their respective areas of operation among other factors,” he said.

The survey, he explained, is annually conducted by IT Edge Intelligence Unit based on detailed analysis of available data on the ICT, technology business sector in 10 of the 14 ECOWAS countries.

The data used for the survey, he said, include basic information on each organisations directly from some of companies or third party information source including leading analyst firms such as Gartner Group and IDC, local newspapers and magazines, news websites and international news publications including Technology Times (Nigeria), IT Weekly (Dubai), Balancing Act, the Financial Times, ITRealms Online and the Economist in the UK, the Forbes Rich List, the Fortune 500, the Wall Street Journal and Reuters. Among the top 50 for 2010 are Globacom, Systemspecs, Unique Solutions (Gambia), PPC, DOPC, NIIT, and MTN. Others are Interswitch, Computer Warehouse Group, DCC, Zinox, Nokia, Cisco, HP, Aviat and Helios, among others.

“They represent the best of technology and business efforts in terms of corporate excellence, service delivery, transparency and strict adherence to the tenets of best international practice,” he said. Pointing out that the rating would be the fourth for the ECOWAS sub-region, and include companies from French and English speaking West Africa. Rating covered all sub-sectoral players ranging from international vendors, software companies, infrastructure providers, telcos, handset manufacturers, and distribution companies to PC makers.

“We have witnessed tremendous market growth in the last few years helped by liberalisation and deregulation. We have also seen a hash of service delivery and opportunistic products making appearance on the shelf without any concern for whether they meet customer’s expectations or not. This rating is an expansion of our editorial vision at helping to create a market of accurate ‘facts and figures’” he said.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D