IDC foresees spending on IoT reach $7.8bn

ITRealms:

The Internet of Things (IoT) market in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) has been forecasted to defy the region's moderate economic outlook by growing 19.6 per cent year-on-year in 2017 to total $7.8 billion, according to a recent update to the Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide from International Data Corporation (IDC), reports ITRealms.

Research analyst for telecommunications, IoT, and digital media at IDC MEA, Mr. Wale Babalola, disclosed this, noting that when compared favorably to the healthy 18.1 per cent growth seen in 2016, the market's performance to the proliferation of digital transformation initiatives across the region as businesses and government entities strive to boost productivity and improve efficiency.

"The MEA IoT market is becoming increasingly competitive, enabling organizations to source a range of innovative digital solutions aimed at transforming business operations, improving the customer experience, and enhancing employee engagement. Indeed, IoT now offers a myriad of industry-specific solutions that can be easily deployed by organizations in a bid to stay ahead of competition.

"IDC expects the manufacturing, transportation, and utilities industries to see the highest levels of IoT-related spending in 2017 as organizations across these verticals look to digitalize their operations and improve their value proposition across different lines of business. The commitment of service providers, application developers, and OEMs to developing purpose built end-to-end IoT solutions is serving as a major driver of the growing adoption we are seeing across the region."

Manufacturing organizations will lead the way in 2017, with IDC forecasting IoT-related spending of $1.3 billion for this vertical. The 'manufacturing operations' use case will account for more than 51% of this investment. 'Manufacturing operations' is an IoT use case that supports digitally-executed manufacturing and the way in which manufacturers use intelligent and interconnected I/O (input output) tools (e.g., sensors, actuators, drives, vision/video equipment) to enable different components in the manufacturing field (e.g., machine tools, robots, conveyor belts) to autonomously exchange information, trigger actions, and control each other independently.

The transportation industry is also forecast to see IoT-related spending of around $1.3 billion in 2017. The 'freight monitoring' use case is expected to account for $849 million of this figure, which aptly highlights the increasing importance of monitoring goods and improving productivity. The use of IoT for freight management purposes (air, railroad, land, or sea) is based on RFID, GPS, GPRS, and GIS technology to create intelligent, internet-connected transportation systems. These systems perform intelligent recognition, location, tracking, and monitoring of freight and cargo by exchanging information and real-time communications via wireless, satellite, and other channels.

IDC forecasts IoT-related spending by MEA utilities to reach $918 million in 2017, with investments around 'smart grid' technologies to account for more than 82% of this total. Smart grids are rapidly gaining traction across the region as municipalities increasingly see the value proposition in deploying related solutions in an effort to efficiently distribute resources to their respective end customers.

"Numerous smart city projects are already underway across the region, and the propagation of such initiatives will continue to fuel IoT adoption by both public and private sector organizations," says Babalola. "Saudi Arabia and the UAE are leading the charge when it comes to smart cities, so it makes sense that these two countries will account for the highest contributions to overall IoT investment in MEA during 2017, with a combined value of more than $1.6 billion."

IDC's Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide forecasts IoT revenues for 12 technologies and 47 use cases across 20 vertical industries in 8 regions and 52 countries. 

Nonye Dom/GEE

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Presidency denies spending N2tn on elections

ITRealms:

The Presidency has denied spending or budgeting N2 trillion on the just concluded elections and described media reports making a round as suspicious and only the imagination of the authors, reports ITRealms.

According to the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr.  Reuben Abati, the Presidency and the People’s Democratic Party conducted the 2015 elections in strict accordance with the rule of law.

“The allegation of a theft of public funds is extremely malicious,” Abati said, noting that the annual budget of the Federal Government is a little over N4 trillion and wondered where and how the Federal Government should have used half of the estimated budget on elections.

He insisted that the story is practically suggesting that half of the federal budget was spent on elections.

“This kind of reckless insinuation is meant to incite the public and instigate national crisis,” he decried.

President Jonathan, he said, has done his best to protect and strengthen democracy and promote peace.

Abati pointed out that President Jonathan, deserves all the accolades that he has received from both Nigerians and the international community for this.

He alleged that certain persons and interest groups may not be happy that his profile has further risen and that his legacy is assured; but they do their country gross disservice when they act so unpatriotically.

“Anyone who is engaged in imposing a crisis on the country by any means is not being fair to Nigeria. We can only appeal to the public to be wary of such reckless tactics now on display, which form the substance of an odd, malicious campaign after the elections,” he said.

The presidential spokesman emphasised that the Presidency is particularly worried that since the March 28 and April 11 elections, some persons have continued to work very hard to diminish the Jonathan Presidency.

“They need to be reminded that the time for politics is over; it is now time to focus on the in-coming government, with emphasis on national development and moving the country forward,” he said.

 +Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) +Reuben Abati

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