The Middle East and Africa (MEA) Personal Computer (PC) market posted its third successive quarter of year-on-year growth in quarter four (Q4) 2014, continuing its recovery from the seven successive quarterly declines it experienced leading up to Q2 2014.
The latest figures announced by the International Data Corporation (IDC) showed that the overall market grew 2.8 percent year-on-year for the quarter, spurred primarily by shipments of portable PCs and the return to a semblance of stability in certain key markets across the region.
However, IDC expects the MEA PC market to suffer an overall decline of 3.9 percent year-on-year in 2015, with a total of 17.48 million units to be shipped over the 12-month period. Some country markets are expected to suffer in early 2015 due to currency fluctuations, including Nigeria.
“At the same time, the market’s performance will be hindered by uncertainty over the outcome of general elections in both Nigeria and Turkey,” says Fouad Rafiq Charakla, research manager for Personal Computing, Systems, and Infrastructure solutions at IDC Middle East, Turkey, and Africa.
The Nigerian PC market remains hugely underpenetrated with ample room for growth, however, uncertainties around the upcoming elections continue to stifle the market. The upcoming elections in Nigeria are likely to be the most divisive since the military restored civilian rule in 1999, with plunging oil prices that have seen the naira battered, cutting foreign income for the oil-dependent country, which means it has less money to manage political problems.
The naira suffered its biggest monthly decline in more than five years last month, amid concern over political uncertainty and the central bank’s inability to manage the currency as oil prices fell.
“And the recent rapid decline in global oil and gas prices will have an impact on almost all parts of the region, although the extent of this will vary from country to country. Nigeria and Ghana are expected to suffer the most, with PC shipments to these countries set to shrink around 40 percent year-on-year in 2015,” Charakla said.
Dan Ojabo
