South Africa draws up strategy to promote BPO industry

Gauteng in South Africa will create 4,000 new jobs in the BPO sector during the current year. In addition, an under-construction 24-hour center coming up in Johannesburg will provide another 3,000 new jobs. According to the CEO of Business Process Enabling South Africa (BPeSA), Keryn House, the new project in Johannesburg will be operational with the ensuing 12 to 14 months giving the country’s BPO sector the much-needed boost and help it to generate revenues worth over R7.4 billion during 2010.

Meanwhile, a website reports that an outsourcing forum organized recently by the Gauteng provincial government in association with the major BPO industry participants resolved that the business process outsourcing industry in the country should witness an additional growth of 9% to 14% four years’ time. Keryn said that the Government of South Africa has decided to grant the new technological center in Johannesburg the status of a private sector project. While the land will be provided by the provincial government of Johannesburg, tenders will be invited from competent and willing parties to undertake the project.

Keryn was of the view that the other projects that the Business Process Enabling South Africa intends to undertaken comprise promoting the talent pool in the region as well as offering research on South Africa, especially Gauteng. She said that unless they adopted a definite approach to promote the BPO industry in the country, there would be no real growth and the industry will remain moribund.

Currently, South Africa has four prominent BPO locations, including Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape. Among these locations, Gauteng has been dominating the BPO industry in South Africa since the beginning employing as high as 71% or 35,700 personnel of the local industry’s entire workforce. In South Africa call centers comprise two-third of the BPO industry, while the remaining part includes outsourcing services, such as financial accounting, information technology support, data analytics and an assortment of legal services.