South Africa - International Franchise Association

The U.S. Commercial Service in Johannesburg South Africa can be contacted via e-mail at:
Bheki.Ndimande@trade.gov; Phone: +27-11- 290-3356; Fax: +27-11- 884-0253 or visit our
website: http://export.gov/southafrica/index.asp
Information Technology (IT) Return to top
Overview Return to top
2010 2011 2012
Unit: USD billions
2013
(estimated) (estimated)
IT Market 9.3 10.4 11.8 12.9
Hardware 4.1 4.5 5.0 5.5
Software 1.8 2.1 2.3 2.5
Services 3.4 3.8 4.5 4.9
Exchange Rate: 1 USD 7.33 7.16
Total Market Size = (Total Local Production + Total Imports) – (Total Exports)
Data Sources: Above figures are unofficial estimates obtained from industry
sources.
South Africa's information technology market is the largest in Africa, ranking 20th in the
world in overall market size, and eighth in IT spending as a proportion of GDP. As an
increasingly important contributor to South Africa's gross domestic product (GDP), the
country's ICT and electronics sector is both sophisticated and developing. Several
international corporates operate subsidiaries from South Africa, including IBM, Unisys,
Microsoft, Intel, Systems Application Protocol (SAP), Dell, Novell and Compaq. The
electronics industry’s revenues continue to grow and key players in industrial, power,
defense and telecoms electronics include Siemens, Alcatel, Ericsson, Altech, Grintek,
Spescom, Tellumat and Marconi.
South Africa's ICT products and services industry continues to penetrate the fastgrowing
African market. South African companies and locally based subsidiaries of
international companies have supplied most of the new fixed and wireless telecoms
networks that have been established across the continent in recent years.
The recently installed submarine cable along the east and west coast of Africa has
already had a significant impact on the high broadband and internet costs in South Africa
and the region, and may further encourage the purchase of computer hardware and
software products.
Sub-Sector Best Prospects Return to top
Hardware:
The hardware market is predicted to grow from $3.8 billion in 2009 to $5.5 billion in
2013. Computer sales, including accessories, are expected to increase from $3.1 billion
to $4.6 billion over the same period.
Software: