Staff Writer
19 July 2007
Despite the small size of the Botswana Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry, those already in the terrain want to conquer mature markets like South Africa and India and compete in the multi billion dollar global industry.
The Botswana industry, which is bracing itself for a BPO conference end of this month, says it wants to use the gathering to position itself. At a recent press conference at the Botswana International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), the industry outlined its plans for the sector and talked about the conference.
"We want to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and position ourselves as competitors in the global markets, so that we tackle markets like India and South Africa," said Constance Matabiswana, the Chairman of Outsource Botswana.
Outsource Botswana is a body set up by a group of companies in 2004, aimed at developing the BPO industry and call centres.
BPO, which is traditionally perceived to be a call centre business, encompasses wide-ranging sectors like data processing, customer service, and market survey, amongst others.
Currently, the industry comprises the captive contact centres of Barclays Bank, the Water Utilities Corporation (WUC), and Standard Charted Bank, among others, while there are two private players. The industry in Botswana employs around 300 employees, while in South Africa, the call centre sector is expected to create over 100, 000 jobs by 2010.
Globally, the industry is worth $57 billion (or about P348.8 billion) and has created 2,2 million jobs worldwide.
However, with the country having one of the poorest Information Technology (IT) networks in the world, the industry thinks it could develop niches and have a comparative advantage.
"The real potential would come from offshore: that is the real goal for us," added Oseg group's Managing Director, Majakathata Pheko, who co-addressed the press conference.
The industry says Botswana could have a language niche as compared to other markets.
"Batswana have a softer language. This is a niche unlike South African or India".
However, the industry is faced with some challenges that include high telecommunications charges and a small market.
For example, one investor decided to go to South Africa, where it is cheaper to make a call at P0.29 a minute, while making a call for the same duration would have cost P3.90.
The BPO conference, to be held in July 31 according to Moraki Mokgosana, IFSC Business Development Manager, (BPO and Call centres) will discuss viabilities of BPO in Botswana.
He said it would allow them to share opportunities with regional players, including Business Process Enabling South Africa (BpeSA,) that will be represented by its chief executive officer Mfana Mfayela.
Mokgosana says BPOs allow companies to focus on core business and added that also reduces costs and improves service delivery.
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