- By quade
- 30 August 2024
Kenyan BPOs Set To Be A Favorite in the BPO Market
Business Processing Operators have been instrumental in boosting many developing economies such as the Philippines and India. Africa has also seen these benefits and while many point to South Africa as the hub, Kenyan BPOs are slowly emerging as a major player in the market.
Recent projections show that they are set to bring in $254 million in revenue this year. This leads many to ask why has Kenya emerged as such a strong player and how its neighbors faring against it.
Kenyan BPOs Sucess in the Market
Kenyan BPOs aren’t the only ones who have seen growth in recent years as East Africa as a whole has seen steady success in the BPO industry. Among the success stories in this industry is US-based BPO Samasource which has set up shop in several East African countries such as Ghana, Mauritius, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Zimbabwe, and Kenya.
Their CEO, Wendy Gonzales explains that their company generates $500 million in revenues worldwide. From there, they saw that East Africa was a point of interest and where they plan to continue investing.
In a talk about Generative AI at the University of Nairobi, Gonzales expressed optimism at the potential of Kenya as a BPO hotspot and could become a major digital employer if their growth rate remains the same and no major issues emerge.
“Kenya has made very good headway amidst stiff competition and must avoid complacency by guarding its market positioning and providing an enabling environment to further deepen the GBS market opportunity.”
-Wendy Gonzales, CEO of Sama.
Reasons for Kenyan BPOs Dominance in East Africa
When asked as to why Kenyan is such an excellent place for BPOs, Gonzales cited their excellent employees. With strong backgrounds in tech and other essential services, Kenyan BPO workers can work in various market segments including digital creation, AI tools, and video editing.
Aside from being beneficial to BPO providers, this is also important for the local economy as by 2030, they estimate that between 50-55% of all Kenyan jobs will require some IT skills. Providing expertise and experience for this will become even more important now as many areas of Kenya still do not have access to the necessary education or training materials.
“Yet there are significant gaps in basic and advanced digital skills—particularly in rural areas and among women.”
-Wendy Gonzales, CEO of Sama.
“Several countries are, however, fighting hard to edge Kenya out of its growth track, which necessitates close attention to secure market positioning,”
-Wendy Gonzales, CEO of Sama.
The expertise provided by Kenyan BPOs will become even more important with the emergence of AI as a tool. Many believe this can further improve productivity and generate more income for the BPOs. Some experts estimate that it can create between $2,6 and $4,4 trillion annually to the global economy.
“To bring some of this growth to Kenya, the government is establishing policies and frameworks that foster innovation and invest in research and development while protecting the rights and interests of all citizens, following the principles of ethical AI development and usage.”
-John Tanui, Principal Secretary for ICT
How Can the BPO Industry Learn From This Development
With the success of Kenyan BPOs, there are many key lessons that the industry should learn from. The biggest is that new hotspots for BPOs are emerging outside traditional BPO players like the Philippines or Bangladesh. This should be a welcome and important change for these places as it can provide them with serious competition, forcing existing players to up their capabilities.
The next important thing is providing adequate training for workers, especially in less developed areas. With an increasingly digitized economy, Kenyan BPOs must educate their people to find additional workers. This is something places like the Philippines must deal with due to having many rural
Lastly, it shows the importance of gaining foreign investment in boosting BPOs as they have been instrumental in getting Kenyan BPOs off the ground.
Our geniusOS team is happy to see the success of other rising BPO players across the world. Not only is this great for the industry, but it shows the potential of smaller groups like ours and what we are capable of. For more information about our services, you can check them out here.
