Wipro, India?s third largest IT services exporter, has identified the African continent as one of its new growth markets and has lined up plans to expand in this region to meet the growing demand for technology services among home-grown players and multinationals operating in the region. Wipro Infotech, the India-middle east arm of the IT major, has already got some presence in Africa, in countries such as Egypt, South Africa and Kenya. It is now looking at expanding into the eastern part of the continent, into nations such as Tanzania and Uganda.

?Africa is part of our growth markets. From a global standpoint, outside of India and the middle east, we have identified certain growth markets where we need to invest for us to get results in 12-24 months,? Anand Sankaran, senior vice-president and business head ? India & middle east, Wipro, told FE.

Sankaran said that Wipro’s investments in the region will be to build capabilities catering to the domestic economies of Africa.

The IT major has got a strong presence in South Africa, with three centres focusing on demand from sectors such as banking, telecom, energy and natural resources. Technology research firm IDC has projected that the total IT services market in South Africa will expand at a compounded annual growth rate of 8.7% to exceed $17 billion in 2015.

However, at the moment, the addressable market for Wipro in Africa is estimated at around $100 million, which is relatively small compared with other markets. The IT major forayed into Egypt in 2007 and later expanded into South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Swaziland.

Wipro has over 1,100 people working in Africa and the company has already announced its plans to scale up the South African centre to over 1,000 people in the next couple of years.

This expansion into Africa is also a natural extension for Wipro from the middle east, where it has a long-standing relationship. According to Sankaran, the overall middle east africa (MEA) IT market is estimated to be around $30 billion.

Wipro in FY13 generated IT services revenue of $553 million from India and the middle east, recording year-on-year growth of 1.2%. The company does not provide a break-up of revenues for India and the middle east.

For the Bangalore-headquartered software-services firm, West Asia is a large market, and it commands a leadership position among the top-tier Indian IT firms operating in the region. Wipro has presence in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait. It employs about 1,300 people in the region, of which 800 are based in Saudi Arabia.

?Most of the centres in West Asia are 150-200 seaters. We have one centre in Dubai, which is catering to the UAE market and we have one centre in Saudi Arabia, which is more of a client-specific centre at the present. We have plans to create more near-shore capabilities like we have done in other parts of the world,? noted Sankaran.

Wipro has also embarked on a localisation drive in west Asia, especially in Saudi Arabia and Oman, by hiring locals as employees. Sankaran said that the key sectors driving Wipro’s growth in the region include the government, banking, oil and gas and telecom.

Wipro has been growing at close to 40% in west Asia over the last three years. The overall IT market in the region is pegged at about $8 billion, of which the services market is estimated to be $2.5 billion. The nature of business for Wipro in west Asia is mostly end-to-end implementation of projects, which includes setting up the entire application and infrastructure for clients and managing it for 3 to 5 years. There are also point projects, such as implementing SAP or setting up a data centre.