Business Daily (Nairobi)
Okuttah Mark
28 April 2008
A skills gap is emerging as the latest obstacle to entrepreneurs engaged in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and call centres retaining international contracts.
A number of players say it is proving hard for companies involved in transcription and editing work for international organisations to get competent editors.
Franchesca Kairo, the managing director of Oriak Digital, says her company has vacancies but is yet to get the right personnel.
"Getting people who can execute the job to specifications is difficult despite graduates having good papers. The output is causing quality concerns over our service to international clients," said Ms Kairo.
Mwangi Wamae, who has worked with a BPO firm in the US, says Kenyan companies are yet to prove they can deliver quality work within deadlines.
He also says that companies whose owners work there full time are performing much better than those whose owners work elsewhere.
Another hurdle that he says needs to be addressed is the mode of payment by Kenyan companies. The companies enter into a contract of monthly payment while most of the clients they work for pay per job. This mismatch, he says, forces local companies to look for other sources of funding to pay their staff after the expiry of the contracts.
Mr Wamae says the local companies should not hinge their advantages on the low cost labour in Kenya compared to India when pitching for international contracts.
In 2007, the global BPO market was valued at $ 287 billion but it is expected to grow by 19.31 per cent and reach $480 billion by 2010.
India is still considered the most attractive BPO destination attracting 65 per cent of global IT offshore industry.
According to Paul Kukubo, the ICT Board chief executive officer, they are working with the BPO and Call Centre Association to build on the standards in the sector. Currently, the BPOs are paying $7,500 per megabyte per month for the bandwidth subscription.
The government, through the ICT Board, has said it is going to offer bandwidth subsidy to the operators and higher learning institutions until the grant by the World Bank for the undersea fibre cable becomes a reality.
The cable that is expected to link the country with the rest of the world is likely to land in Mombasa in the first quarter of next year.
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