IT Spending in Middle East and North Africa Will Grow 2.4% in 2020

IT spending in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) will total $160 billion in 2020, an increase of 2.4% from 2019, according to Gartner, Inc.

“Non-oil economic initiatives such as the Dubai Expo 2020 in UAE; the Al Qiddiya entertainment, sports and arts complex; The Red Sea Project and the Neom living laboratory in Saudi Arabia are boosting business activity in MENA, which will heavily influence IT spending locally,” said John-David Lovelock, distinguished research vice-president at Gartner. “In 2019, organizations in MENA disinvested in data center systems, devices and communication services, which led to a decline of 2.8% in the overall IT spending.”

In 2020, businesses in MENA are on pace to increase their IT budgets across all segments with spending on enterprise software expecting to achieve the highest growth (see Table 1).

Table 1: Middle East and North Africa IT Spending Forecast (Billions of U.S. Dollars)

	2019 Spending	2019 Growth (%)	2020 Spending	2020 Growth (%)
Data Center Systems	4,743	-3.9	4,793	1.1
Enterprise Software	6,612	8.6	7,425	12.3
Devices	27,487	-10.4	28,475	3.6
IT Services	12,105	7.3	13,125	8.4
Communications Services	105,551	-2.2	106,420	0.8
Overall IT	156,499	-2.8	160,239	2.4

Source: Gartner

Spending on devices will achieve growth in 2020, following a double-digit decline in 2019. The currency effects that raised prices on hardware will abate and business spending on devices will grow 3.6% in 2020 locally. Enterprise spending on software continues to grow, achieving double-digit growth in 2020. This trend is expected to continue for the next three years as more organizations move to cloud-based products and services.

As local organizations continue to invest more resources and IT budget in their digital transformation initiatives, technology consulting will increase among local companies. In 2020, IT services spending is expected to total $13.1 billion, an 8.4% increase year over year. Compared to other regions, the levels of spending on IT services in MENA are among the highest four in the world (after Greater China, Emerging Asia/Pacific and Latin America).

More detailed analysis on the outlook for the IT industry is available in the complementary webinar “IT Spending Forecast, 4Q19 Update: Emerging Technologies in 2020.”

Gartner’s IT spending forecast methodology relies heavily on rigorous analysis of sales by thousands of vendors across the entire range of IT products and services. Gartner uses primary research techniques, complemented by secondary research sources, to build a comprehensive database of market size data on which to base its forecast.

The Gartner quarterly IT spending forecast delivers a unique perspective on IT spending across the hardware, software, IT services and telecommunications segments. These reports help Gartner clients understand market opportunities and challenges. The most recent IT spending forecast research is available to Gartner clients in “Gartner Market Databook, 4Q19 Update.” This quarterly IT spending forecast page includes links to the latest IT spending reports, webinars, blog posts and press releases.

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