The 2nd annual East Africa Outsourcing Summit officially took place in Nairobi Kenya today, with several Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) experts from across the East Africa region in attendance.
The summit comes at a time when it is reported that the global BPO industry is expected to reach $304 Billion by the end of 2013. However, the East African region is yet to fully tap into its potential of being one of the leading BPO centers in the world, with many hurdles yet to be overcome.
Addressing the attendants at the summit, Tejbal S Bedi, Chairman of the Kenya IT Outsourcing Society said that Kenya was doing fairly well as BPO hub as compared to its neighbors within the East Africa region.
This he attributed to the good internet penetration in the country, enough data centers, presence of skilled human capital and a growing infrastructure.
“This is the right time to invest in Kenya, considering the tremendous growth the IT sector has been witnessing over the past five years,” said Bedi.
Bedi went ahead to list some of the milestones achieved by Kenya towards making it a leading BPO hub within East Africa, with one them being the establishment of the Chipuka Certification for software developers by the Kenya government in partnership with the Carnegie Mellon University. This, he said, will place Kenya better in the global BPO market, as people seeking to outsource developer services will have proof of skills held by the developers
The conference’s main agenda was to promote East Africa as a BPO destination, attract foreign investment and also expand the ICT talent pool of East African countries to meet increasing demand.
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Today’s summit was part of a three day event that marks the Kenya IT week being held at Crowne Plaza in Nairobi.
