OPINION
By Boniface Manyala
 |
| Dr. Bitange Ndemo at the East African Outsourcing summit |
On June 5 to 6, 2012 the East
African Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) executives and those from various
parts of the globe gathered in Nairobi to discuss the potentiality of BPO in
the African region in relation to the current global economic situation.
The presence of such high-profile
personalities such as Kenya’s Information and Communications Permanent Secretary
Dr. Bitange Ndemo and Paul Kukubo, the Kenya ICT Board CEO pointed to a
successful two-day summit, and indeed it was.
It is clear that Africa, and
especially East Africa provides strategic outsourcing destination for companies
in the West and is ready to compete with other leading global outsourcing
destinations like India, Indonesia and Singapore.
This favorable outsourcing
climate that investors in the region need to take advantage of includes, as Dr.
Ndemo stated, government’s commitment to actively promote Kenya as an
outsourcing destination of choice.
I am sure that governments in the
rest of East Africa are committed towards the same. I say this because after listening Cayman
Consults presentation by Uganda’s Abubaker Luwaga, there was no doubt that
Uganda, just like Kenya is committed to create an environment that is favorable
for outsourcing.
In other words, we in East Africa
are ready and equipped to handle outsourced work from western markets because
our companies have an established tradition in best practices to deliver
efficient and cost effective contact centers. This I must add is something we
should be proud of.
We are also favored by a bright future, if we consider the global
BPO market which is projected to grow at an average of 5.4 per cent every year
in the period 2012 to 2015. These,
combined with the talent pool from the young graduates that our colleges and
universities churn out every year, should spur the growth in the outsourcing
industry.
Looking at our IT infrastructure shows that we are not doing badly
considering that we have witnessed
innovative IT-Enabled services prominent is such countries as Kenya, Tanzania,
Uganda and Rwanda.
Significant presence
has also been observed in Uganda and outside East Africa in Zambia and South
Africa. It is notable that the social, economic and political expansion in East
Africa has been accelerated by the strong forces of Information Technology.
While we also boost as a strong tourism destination and availability of many
companies that offer financial services.
True, the flourishing
IT segment that consist of BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) and ITES
(IT-enabled services) are the core sectors that are driving the continent into
the epicenter of transformation but all those favorable factors
notwithstanding, we in East Africa cannot afford to seat on our laurels, we
must, as Munjal Shah stated at the summit, make a deliberate move to encourage
the growth of domestic BPO market.
And how do we do this? Easy,
Let us protect the cost advantage to ensure that buyer interest are sustained, let us access
untapped talent pools by creating awareness for youth to treat BPO as a long
term career-building opportunity, let us build capacity to increase collaboration between industry and academic
institutions by developing BPO Specific curriculums and education Models, but
above all let us strengthen regulatory frameworks and ensure there is political
stability in East Africa.
Read also here:
Business Daily
http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Opinion+++Analysis/Strong+regulatory+frameworks+vital+to+success+of+BPO+Industry/-/539548/1435968/-/skuls7/-/index.html
Africa Business.com
Business Daily
http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Opinion+++Analysis/Strong+regulatory+frameworks+vital+to+success+of+BPO+Industry/-/539548/1435968/-/skuls7/-/index.html
Africa Business.com
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