About $12.68billion was estimated to have been spent by banks in the Middle East and Africa in 2019, on information and communications technology (ICT).
  
This investment was said to have gone into both software and hardware acquisitions.
  
An insight from the International Data Corporation (IDC), which disclosed this, however, forecast that this figure will reach $13.23billion this year and continue rising at a compound yearly growth rate of 4.7 per cent over the coming years to reach $15.24billion in 2023.
    
IDC’s Senior Consultant for the Middle East and Africa, Nagia El Emary, said the banking and finance industry is becoming increasingly reliant on emerging digital technologies to attract and retain customers.

“The sheer magnitude of financial technology (fintech) products and services on the market today is staggering. And financial institutions are increasingly embracing 3rd Platform technologies and innovation accelerators such as cloud, mobility, and artificial intelligence (AI), to increase their market penetration rates, enhance customer satisfaction through the delivery of personalised services, and streamline operations to cut costs and maximise efficiencies.
   
“As such, these technologies are becoming an inextricable part of the sector as a whole, and this is only the beginning.”
   
According to the Data Corporation, the increasing reliance on cloud across the industry has given rise to cloud marketplaces.