The Middle East and African region will be the fastest-growing region worldwide for IT spend for the next two years. That’s the word from senior IDC officials who were in Johannesburg in March at the research giant’s Africa CIO Summit 2010 conference in Johannesburg.

Last year, ICT spend worldwide shrank 2.5 percent. Emerging markets were also badly affected, with South Africa’s spend, excluding telecoms, down eight percent to $10,5 billion, making this a welcome shift. IDC’s Middle East, Africa, and Turkey VP Jyoti Lalchandani says he expects the African IT market to continue to surge forward over the coming years, forecasting a compound annual growth rate in IT expenditure of around 10.6 percent for 2009 to 2013.