Africa: The Next Frontier of Outsourcing...
Vidia Mooneegan, managing director of Ceridian Mauritius, the emerging growth opportunities in Africa for business process outsourcing (BPO).
What are some of the benefits of Africa as an outsourcing destination? Africa has a population of 933 million (2007 estimate), and 50% are under 20 years. It has a large pool of underemployed at highly competitive rates. With Asia rapidly increasing in costs, Africa will be a strong alternative over the next few years, and work may be cascaded to Africa.
Another significant advantage is language capabilities. Due to its strong history of European colonial rule, many European languages are spoken on the continent, including English, French, German, Portuguese, Dutch (Afrikaans), Spanish and Italian. As other non-English-speaking countries start to take outsourcing seriously, Africa seems to be a good choice.
It also has a favorable time zone, almost the same as Europe. For U.S. companies, working hours are usually in the evening, so Africans avoid the night shifts that Asians have to work.
Its geographical location may be an advantage. North Africa is a few hours away from Europe compared to India and China.
What are some of the problems about sending outsourcing work to African countries? They are the same concerns that people talked about in Asia a few years ago, things like infrastructure, political stability, training and so on.
Africa needs to address the following issues if it wants to be a serious player: 1) [It needs] a redundant and reliable Internet broadband infrastructure; 2) more IT education; 3) government needs to invest in IT or business parks for outsourcing businesses; 4) the regulatory environment needs improving; 5) a change in mind-set, e.g., [companies] cannot depend on government handouts; and 6) more entrepreneurs to build markets, probably having the diaspora to come back and start building the Infosyses and Wipros of Africa.
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Mills is chairman of Chalré Associates, an executive search and management consulting firm working in the emerging economies of Asia.
7Comment(s):
Thanks for the link.
There has been a lot of good news coming out of Africa lately.
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Outsourcing has amazing potentials considering we are yet to scratch the surface in Africa. I think the emphasis on exploration of minerals has not allowed business to focus on services and its prospects.
Always a great read. How body?
he's overestimating the language and the cost advantages..
educated labour is neither cheap nor large (in numbers) and all the optical broadband cables and the entrepreneurs in the world can't really change that.
I do beleive that there alternative ways to view challenges. If training and man power development is the issue. It can be turned around in a few years, and a program could be build around that. So one can choose to see the problems and road blocks or one can choose to see the oppourtunities in surmounting these problems. Most innovative ideas do not appear crystal clear at first glance. Right?