Dark Continent in call centre spotlight

CAIRO - Could Africa be the next India?

Consumers could be as likely to find themselves talking to Cairo as Calcutta by 2010 as Africa continues to grow as a global outsourcing centre, experts claim.

Market analysis firm Datamonitor forecasts that Africa will see the fastest growth in the number of call centre workers of any region between now and the end of the decade.

It expects rapid growth in Western investment in the region after a determined effort by governments and private sector companies to make Africa an outsourcing hotspot.

Datamonitor call centre and outsourcing analyst Peter Ryan told an offshore customer management international conference yesterday that African countries generally competed on lower prices than Western Europe and North America and not far above those in India.

"They provide excellent language capabilities and agent sophistication and are on a par with most other popular outsourcing destinations," he said.

Egypt, in particular, impresses Western investors with a mix of "savvy and linguistically talented agents", competitive low costs and the attraction of joining Western companies that already have customer centres there.

The consultants, AT Kearney, recently ranked Egypt No 12 in a list of top offshore outsourcing destinations. It produces 200,000 graduates a year, of whom 80,000 emerge with IT and engineering degrees.

Datamonitor forecasts the Egyptian call centre industry will expand more than four-fold from 1500 jobs last year to 7000 by 2010.

Ryan also identified Botswana, Ghana and Kenya, all formerly part of the British Empire, as growth markets for the English-speaking market.

He thinks Botswana will grow from a small base of 100 call centre positions at present to 500 by 2009.

"While not traditionally a location of choice for serving Western customers, sub-Saharan Africa has emerged as a niche market for Western customer services," he said.

"Botswana, Ghana and Kenya have made headlines with their proactive moves to put themselves on to the business process outsourcing map."

Morocco and Tunisia had been successful in attracting Francophone business from French companies, who had fewer options than their English-speaking rivals.

However, South Africa remained the dominant market in Africa.

Datamonitor technology analyst Ri Pierce-Grove said: "We may see prevailing stereotypes of African countries as universally unstable, corrupt and technologically limited replaced with a more nuanced, country-specific view."

- INDEPENDENT