An Assessment of Application Software Market in Cameroon

The government has recognized the importance of ICT in development, but all efforts are geared towards expanding ICT use and nothing to encourage local ICT development/production, especially application software as evidenced in national ICT strategy. There is a niche for local developers to satisfy local needs/export as the application software market is still largely unexplored. Using a modified Porter's Five Forces Model for Industry Analysis, the study examines the application software market and assesses the difficulties faced by local application software developers. The banking sector is dominated by foreign banks using imported software, consequently beyond domestic competitive forces. In the microfinance sector on the contrary, local software dominates the market, though competition is severely hampered by membership of business associations/networks that influence choice of application software. There exist some ambitious and well-structured local developers facing difficulties in software development, marketing, government patronage and piracy. in order to increase impact of local application software development on economy, government should fight piracy, patronize local firms, create a service to promote the local application software industry, and improve the ICT regulatory/institutional environment.