Africa Trying For Indian-Style Outsourcing Success

Market analyst Datamonitor is announcing research which they claim shows the number of call center agents based in Africa will continue to lead global growth through 2010.

Datamonitor’s prediction of rapid growth in Western investment in this region is underlined by efforts on the part of governments and private sector firms across the region to make the continent a business process outsourcing hotspot. 

In addition, Datamonitor claims, “African countries generally compete on lower prices than in western Europe and North America and provide excellent language capabilities and agent sophistication and are on a par with most other popular outsourcing destinations,” according to company officials.

According to Datamonitor, Morocco and Tunisia are “ideal locations” for customer care servicing French speaking nations, whose offshore outsourcing options are “very limited.”

In addition, however, Morocco is developing bases of English and Spanish speaking talent. 

Egypt continues to impress Datamonitor with what the market research firm calls its “mix of savvy and linguistically-talented agents, low costs and ever-growing blue-chip investors who have housed customer care in that location.”

Sub-Saharan Africa, while not traditionally a location of choice for serving western customers, has emerged as a niche market for Western customer service. Countries like Botswana, Ghana and Kenya have been noted recently for their proactive moves to put themselves on the BPO map.

South Africa remains a dominant and ever-maturing market for contact center outsourcing services, especially in the area of value-added functions. Spoken English is among the best anywhere and the commercial acumen of agents is first-rate.

David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims’ columnist page.

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