Though global economy has been sluggish, the African economy showed a high degree of resilience and managed to maintain mild growth – the economy was estimated to grow 4.8% in 2013 and further accelerate to 5.3% in 2014, according to the African Economic Outlook 2013 Report, produced annually by the African Development Bank, the OECD Development Center, Economic Commission for Africa, and the UN Development Programme. Africa has been regarded as a promising market not only because of its increasing demand for surveillance cameras, but also for biometric applications. For instance, in order to prevent medical wastage, biometrics has recently been applied to vaccination management in Africa. Additionally, biometrics can be applied to electoral participation, fostering confidence for democratization in African states.
In fact, continuous growth can be expected in many African countries in 2014. North Africa is considered to be one of the markets with the most potential, as its security threats have remained escalated in the recent years. Apart from social instability, a growing number of shopping malls in the capital cities are contributing to the high demand for security equipment, which has provided god opportunities for the manufacturers and systems integrators to market security devices in the African market.
“Nigeria and Ghana are the fastest growing countries in West Africa; the fastest from East Africa are Kenya and Tanzania. As for the other parts of Africa, Angola and the Congo are growing dramatically as well. In fact, government projects are coming in really fast from the Congo. The level of requirements and specifications have changed and the Congo is investing much more in high-end systems now,” commented Aditya Sahaya, Director of Business Development for Prologix Distribution, a leading value-added IT and security distributor in the Middle East and North African region.
Despite the relatively positive growth of the overall African economy, South Africa has demonstrated a relatively tentative growth due to the domestic social tension that has been coursing through the country lately. It is projected that the South African surveillance market will experience a mere single-digit growth in the upcoming years, according to IHS. It is worth noting that analog devices will continue to dominate the South African market in the coming years.