Pretoria, 30 Nov 2010
The African telecommunications market is poised for significant growth and this has been highlighted with the recent announcement that telco company, Bharti, has signed a $5 billion outsourcing deal with IBM, whereby Bharti will outsource all their IT to the company.
This is according to Johan Grobler, MD of Computer Assisted Telephone Systems (CaTS), one of a number of active business partners for IBM's Lotus Foundations Start Solution - a version of Lotus specifically focused at the small to medium enterprises market section.
“IBM is ramping up its business efforts in Africa and we, as an IBM partner, are feeling more bullish about conducting business in Africa, from where 80% of our revenue currently stems. We recently moved into bigger offices in Tanzania after the Bharti/IBM outsourcing announcement, and are in the process of opening offices in Lagos, Nigeria.
“Tanzania is seen as a fresh market for many IT companies and, while the market is still small, there is a lot room to grow. There is a lot of development going on - especially in Dar es Salaam. Buildings are springing up everywhere and there is a strong business vibe. While we plan to open in Nigeria by the end the year - and will finalise the move in the first quarter of 2011 - we see Tanzania as our springboard into the rest of Africa.
“Europe's growth is stagnant, but pundits point to the fact that Africa, as a continent, could grow by as much as 5%-6% over the next year. It has also been more protected by the recent credit crunch due to the fact that a lot of business is conducted in cash. Most of the buildings going up in Tanzania are built in cash, not on borrowed money. This has sheltered countries like Tanzania, to a large extent, from the credit crisis of the past 2.5 years - from the worst recession since the Great Depression of 1930.”
Grobler said while he expects business to grow in South Africa, our “real growth” will come from countries like Nigeria and Tanzania.
“In order to capitalise on this, we felt it prudent to have a physical presence in these countries.”
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