Survey unveils top 50 ICT firms in West Africa

One of the nation’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) magazines, ITEdge, has unveiled its survey on top 50 ICT firms in the West African region, for 2008.

ITRealms Online recalls that the latest survey is the third in the series of business study and ratings of performances by information technology companies in the market of over 250 million people.

Over 100 companies were ranked across 10 countries by the IT Edge Intelligence Unit (ITE-IU). 

Announcing the survey outcome in Lagos, spokesman for the ITE-IU, Segun Oruame said rankings followed the traditional survey methods which took into consideration, the peculiar challenges of conducting research appraisal on the continent.

The survey do not give an absolute picture of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) based on Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) scene, offers a broad perspective of the sector’s performance and how the major drivers have been able to impact on the economies of the various countries within the community.

“In a practical sense, the research outcome tends to provide a reasonable gauge of how the industry is performing through a lens focusing on the actors,” he said, stressing that as is the tradition, the high point of this year’s rating was recognition ceremony of the Top 50 Technology Business Companies scheduled to hold in Lagos in April.

This, he said, would form part of a short lecture series on the official release of the West Africa Technology Business Outlook (WATBO) 2008, an annual report of the (ITE-IU) assessing the performance of the West Africa technology business scene based on the strength and performance indices of the sector’s major players across the ECOWAS space.

Technology analysts and member of the ITE-IU, Mr. Gbenga Isama, said there are many effective technology companies operating within the region that deserves recognition in 2008 in their role in information technology 4 developments (IT4D).

“Our preferred tech-biz companies range from pioneering to advanced, with each having its own unique identity. Our research have been done mainly through company websites, press releases and consumer experiences however, we want you to think of our annual West Africa Tech-Biz Top 50 feature as companies that demonstrated technological leaderships and entrepreneurships and still carryout day to day business in a credible manner,” Isama asserted. 

The top 50 covered in the survey include HP, Microsoft, Intel, Daar Communications, Cisco, Sony Ericsson,  NIIT, Globacom, Nokia, Zain, Omatek Plc, and Sonatel. Others are Samsung, Huawei, Interswitch, LG, Starcomms Plc, Ericsson, Multilinks Telecom, Chams and Galaxy Backbone.

The list also includes Skye Bank, Systemspecs, VisaFone, Phase3 Telecom, Dimension Data,Gateway Communications, Zoom Mobile, K-Net (Gh) Limited, and Comium  (Sierra Leone, Liberia), Progenics Corp, TheSOFTribe, Expert Edge, BusyInternet, DCC Satellite and Networks, DOPC, Interconnect Clearinghouse (Nig.) Ltd., and eTranzact among others.

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