North America tops global IT spending

Remmy Nweke

North America is topping the global spending on Information Technology (IT) for the year 2005, according to the report released by the International Data Corporation (IDC), just as Africa and Middle East (MEA) stayed at the bottom of the ranking.

Vice President and Regional Managing Director at IDC for Middle East and Africa (MEA), Mr. Jyoti Lalchandani disclosed this in Lagos at the opening of its West African office.

Speaking on the IDC West Africa organizational overview, capabilities and expertise, Mr. Lalchandani, said that North America topped the chart with $420.7 billion in 2005. This is against minute $21.53 billion from the Middle East and Africa in the year under review.

The aforementioned figures represented 43.7 and 2.1 per cents respectively for both North America and MEA in the global IT spending.

The research, he said, was grouped into five continents, namely North America Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Asia Pacific and MEA globally for effective analysis.

He also revealed that Western Europe came second in IT spending with $289.7 billion, CEE was named third with $23.3 billion, while Asia Pacific came behind CEE as fourth with $184.4 billion.

This amounts to 30.1 per cent of global spending coming from Western Europe, 2.4 per cent from CEE and 19.1 per cent from Asia Pacific.

He further disclosed that IDC, a premier global Information and Communication Technology (ICT) market intelligence and advisory firm has expanded its horizon within the MEA, hence the opening of office in West Africa and specifically in Lagos-Nigeria to cater for the regional market.

“We analyze and predict technology trends so that our clients can make strategic, fact-based strategic decisions,” he said.

As said by him, IDC has been delivering technology intelligence, industry analysis, market data, and strategic and tactical guidance since 1964.

IDC is a division of International Data Group (IDG) based in the United States and prides itself as the world’s leading technology media, research and event company.

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