Kenya’s IT Industry (from 2015 to 2016)

Just to mention a few, some of the most interesting highlights in the industry have been as follows:

Change of guard at the country’s IT Head Office – with the year almost coming to an end, the industry saw a shakeup of the top country’s IT head office after the presidential reshuffle that saw the entry of former Google Country Manager as the new CS for IT.
Rise of non-Safaricoms – 2015 saw the rise of Equitel and Orange as potential competitors to Safaricom based on the data provided by CAK in the last quarter. Though the margins are not huge, it’s proof that Equitel and Orange are playing their game in a different style and given time, maybe they can give Safaricom a run for their money.
Growth Growth and Growth of e-commerce – OLX has definitely revolutionized the e-commerce landscape in Kenya and 2015 attests to this fact. Every tom dick and harry has now been accustomed to referring to using the term OLXING versus selling online, meaning that OLX is now fully entrenched in the market. This has led to the sprouting up of more e-commerce companies, thus expanding this sector ten fold
The exchange of words between Kenya’s biggest telco and the regulators wasn’t a good one for 2015 and proved that if left unchecked, a Regulator can play to the downfall of an Innovator in the name of taming dominance
The Fraud monster poked it’s horns in the good name of Technology after it emerged that one of Kenya’s mid tier banks tampered with its IT Core Banking systems in a bid to hide and potentially kill suspicious and fraudulent transactions

2016 will prove to be a more thrilling and exciting year and I think we stand to see a lot more shakeup in this exciting industry.

Rise of Niche Service Providers – 2016 will beckon the rise of more niche service providers across the IT industry. Some niche providers already setting shop include specialized Project Management Consultants catering specifically for the IT industry. I have also witnessed a few startups setting shop within the Testing space; a field that’s already unknown in this market
Growth of the Freelance space – in 2016, we will witness a growth of the Freelance space as more and more IT personnel opt to go solo vis a vis being tied as full time employees
More Startups – 2016 will also witness the setting up shop of more startups in Nairobi, as the city continues to be an attractive technology hub
More IT Spend – contrary to the belief that technology spend in Kenya will slow down in 2016, due to the upcoming election year(2017), 2016 will actually herald a higher IT spend as more and more blue chip companies revamp their IT systems and infrastructure.
Faster Internet and cheaper devices – 2016 will witness faster internet speeds across Kenya and cheaper devices
Shakeup of the Telco sector – based on the CAK data provided in 2015’s last two quarters, 2016 might prove to be the year when the telco sector is truly shaken up and serious competition and alternatives come to play. A key hinging point to this is Orange’s acquisition by Helios(previous shareholding in Equity) and also the diversification of telco’s into other innovative ventures. e.g it’s key to note that whilst other telcos are fighting for dominance, MTN has slowly been venturing into the online market space under the Africa Internet Holdings(AIH) joint venture. In Kenya, AIH runs Kaymu, Jumia, Lamudi, Easy Taxi, HelloFood and Jovago. Put it another way, what if Equitel was to get a way into Orange?

Happy and Technie 2016

(The writer is the Group Head of IT / CIO at Jubilee Insurance Group. This post has been reproduced from LinkedIn).