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IBM fuels innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa

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Harmeet
New Update

LAGOS, NIGERIA & CASABLANCA, MOROCCO: IBM announced it is further expanding its operations across Africa with the opening of two new IBM Innovation Centers in Lagos, Nigeria and Casablanca, Morocco. These new centers aim to spur local growth and fuel an ecosystem of development and entrepreneurship around Big Data and Analytics and cloud computing in the region.

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Approximately one in every two medium to large businesses in both South Africa and Kenya already use the cloud. In Nigeria, cloud usage is expected to more than double to 80 percent of businesses by the end of next year. At the same time, organizations around Africa are looking for ways to improve their analytics skills and more accurately tap into the data being produced by mobile devices and tablets - and, better anticipate the needs of their customers by delivering improved services.

As the local demand for these types of advanced technologies and skills increases, Africa is quickly moving to the center of global attention as the last big emerging market of the current economic era. According to the IMF, Africa is set to be the world's second fastest growing region with projected growth of over five percent this year. Africa-grown innovation is key to the continent's future development, and dependent on close collaboration between local experts and global innovation leaders.

To take advantage of this explosive growth - clients, IT partners, developers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and academics will now have access to the latest Big Data and Analytics and cloud-focused enterprise software, hardware, client services, skills training, business and marketing support.

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