Egyptian tech firms expand footprint in Africa

27 May 2015

As a part of the country's efforts to increase IT exports and achieve ambitious economic goals, Egypt's Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) helped setting out a number of partnership protocols and concluding business agreements between Egyptian companies and 17 leading African telecom companies, financial institutions and ICT enterprises, in six different African countries, in the framework of "Africa Together" program, Round II.

Egyptian tech firms expand footprint in Africa

The program reflects the government commitment to accelerate economic growth by expanding the export footprint of its domestic enterprises and help them penetrate different regions in this fast-growing continent. The Egyptian companies began to reap the fruits of the program, custom-tailored to increase their exports, by a number of deals totaling an estimated $7 million.

Over a three-day visit paid by the African delegation, a number of prescheduled one-to-one meetings were held, and site visits to the premises of Egyptian companies were made. On the last day, the visit was finished off with a gala dinner held under the auspices of H.E. Khaled Negm, the Egyptian Minister of ICT, during which ITIDA presented a movie that recapped the program, highlighted the planned initiatives for developing the local IT industry, and featured two keynote speeches by ITIDA's CEO, Eng. Hussein El-Gueretly and Jyoti Lalchandani, IDC's group vice president and regional managing director for the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa.

As many IT Egyptian enterprises with high potential for exports seek to broaden their market exposure, ITIDA in cooperation with IDC implemented a research led Go-To-Market initiative to build up knowledge of African markets and how to approach them effectively. This included providing Egyptian companies with market analysis of nine African markets, demand analysis of 160+ African enterprises followed by a matchmaking trip in Kenya where Egyptian companies conducted 800+ one to one business meetings with over 130 African enterprises and customers over three days.

"The agency leaves no stone unturned in exploring the ICT African markets in terms of prospects and challenges" ITIDA's CEO, Eng. Hussein El-Gueretly said. "In pursuit of growth, Egyptian companies made unremitting efforts in studying these opportunities and bringing about real business benefits" he added.

Africa in agreement

Among the signed agreements, Raya Corporation, the Middle East's largest CIT company based in Cairo, signed business agreements in the field of systems integration with IE Networks as well as Tahses ICT and Consultancy from Ethiopia and the Nigerian Mayakorp.

In the area of field force automation and unified emergency response platform, Softec International partnered with IPMC from Ghana. Also, Smartec inked a contract with the Ghanaian Batitech in network optimisation and home automation while contracted with the Kenyan Sarova Group of Hotels. IT Blocks, the Egyptian software company, agreed with Afcor from Ethiopia and Dhanush Infotech from Kenya on IBM software deployment. BI Technologies signed agreements with Exceed IT Systems from Ethiopia and IPMC from Ghana. Softlock signed with the Nigerian Mayakorp and SystemTrust as well as the Ethiopian Exceed IT Systems.

Additionally, the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency and Dhanush Infotech from Kenya partnered with Zas Soft in the area of ERP. Bsystems Ltd from Ghana signed with Infasme while EME International signed agreements to provide enterprise mobile solutions to the Nigerian Netplus and Ouranos Technology Limited as well as the Ghanaian Bsystems. Sumerge will provide enterprise solutions to Mayakorp from Nigeria and the Ethiopian Websprix. Link Development will provide banking, public sector and telecom solutions to Masterpiece Fusion from Kenya.

Hitekenofal, a leading provider of integrated communication network solutions since 1987 in Egypt, agreed to provide communications networking services to Batitech from Ghana, the Ethiopian Websprix and Exceed IT Systems as well as Even Data and Hamms Engineering from Zambia. Soft Trend signed with Mayakorp from Nigeria to provide security solutions.

Africa Together, one of ITIDA's programs, was launched in last August to support Egyptian companies' exports of IT services and products targeting the African markets. The premier global market intelligence firm, International Data Corporation (IDC) worked hand-in-hand with ITIDA, the executive IT arm of the Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, to give a leg up to Egyptian ICT companies in penetrating high-growth markets across Africa - especially in Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria - through joint partnership and market development efforts.