Call Centres & Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
• The Free State aims to create
8 000 new business-process
outsourcing jobs by 2011
• Local government and private
investors have teamed up in
a R50-million Bloemfontein
call-centre initiative
The Free State is moving fast to take advantage of the rapid growth of the callcentre and business-process outsourcing (BPO) industry. Low rental and labour costs, appropriate infrastructure and the availability of well-educated young people seeking employment are among the reasons for the suitability of this province to investors looking for opportunities to establish call centres.
South Africa is recognised as an excellent location for call centres because of the country’s position in the GMT+2 time zone, the ability of a good proportion of the workforce that speaks unaccented English, and the country’s relatively inexpensive cost structures. The national Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) has a strategy to attract US$175-million to South Africa to take advantage of a worldwide boom that has seen the value of the call-centre industry expand from US$12-million to US$23-billion between 2004 and 2007. By the end of 2007, South Africa had successfully attracted more than R650-million from five major investors and approximately 9 000 jobs had been created.
As a sign of the sector’s strength in the Free State, CNS Call Centre, specialising in insurance and cellular sales, will have 442 sales seats and 82 Q&A seats when it moves to its new Bloemfontein headquarters in 2009.
The BPO industry is seen as a particularly effective job creator. The national Monyetla training programme has already trained and had more than 1 000 graduates taken into employment in the industry, with a further 2 000 people expected to follow soon. The Free State anticipates that about 8 000 jobs (3 000 direct and 5 000 indirect) could be created within the province by the year 2011.
A new initiative of the dti specifically promotes investment outside the nation’s biggest cities. The Second Economy BPO Initiative creates incentives for companies willing to look beyond Cape Town and Johannesburg. The Mangaung Local Municipality has already capitalised on this with the launch of the Re Hodia Moruo Project, a R50-million joint initiative between the local government and several local and international technology companies. Re Hodia Moruo (which means ‘we are growing the community’) aims not only to develop sustainable BPO businesses, but also to improve service delivery to local communities. The municipality is committed to upgrading the municipal fibre-optic network and broadband networks will also be used.
Markets being targeted by the Free State Investment Promotion Agency are banks, insurance houses, the mobile-phone industry, medical aids, transcription services (medical and legal), and government and municipal services. The Re Hodia Moruo Project in Bloemfontein has attracted the following service partners: Cisco, Microsoft, UniNet Communications and Fujitsu Services.
KEY CONTACTS
Business Process Enabling South Africa:
www.bpesa.org.za
Free State Investment Promotion Agency:
www.fipa.gov.za
National Department of Trade and industry:
www.thedti.gov.za
