A unique report outlining the outsourcing readiness of 15 African nations was released at the first Africa Outsourcing Summit organized by CBC Technology on March 2-3, 2009. Topping the report was Egypt followed closely by Mauritius, South Africa, Tunisia and Morocco. Though all nations in the report have outsourcing capabilities, it is clearly shown that infrastructure plays a key role in the offering. The importance of people and skills however, should not be underplayed; Egypt, Mauritius and South Africa were ranked highly at exposing their populous to ICT for example. Other factors such as the business environment, political risk, availability of bandwidth and economic outlook also weighted the ranking.
At the two-day summit the report’s findings were hotly discussed, and responses to the research came from Hon Mr Mandisi Mpahlwa, Minister of Trade and Industry, South Africa, Dr Tarek El-Sadany, Senior Adviser to the Ministry for Technology Policies, Egypt and Hon Prof Peter Msolla, Minister for Communication Science and Technology, Tanzania, who each outlined their countries strategy for an enhanced outsourcing capability. Further representation from Kenya, Botswana, Rwanda and Mauritius responded to the report’s findings, which ranked the countries in order of readiness.
Vijay Amliwala, Managing Director of CBC Technology said at the summit “This is the first summit focusing purely on Africa’s IT sector. Clearly there’s a lot of work still to be done and we have had very positive feedback from the government and ministers to move the Africa agenda forward to truly make it a compelling destination for outsourcing. I look forward to seeing the report develop and deepen over the coming years and reflecting analytically the growth in Africa.”
At the two-day summit the report’s findings were hotly discussed, and responses to the research came from Hon Mr Mandisi Mpahlwa, Minister of Trade and Industry, South Africa, Dr Tarek El-Sadany, Senior Adviser to the Ministry for Technology Policies, Egypt and Hon Prof Peter Msolla, Minister for Communication Science and Technology, Tanzania, who each outlined their countries strategy for an enhanced outsourcing capability. Further representation from Kenya, Botswana, Rwanda and Mauritius responded to the report’s findings, which ranked the countries in order of readiness.
Vijay Amliwala, Managing Director of CBC Technology said at the summit “This is the first summit focusing purely on Africa’s IT sector. Clearly there’s a lot of work still to be done and we have had very positive feedback from the government and ministers to move the Africa agenda forward to truly make it a compelling destination for outsourcing. I look forward to seeing the report develop and deepen over the coming years and reflecting analytically the growth in Africa.”
In this study “Outsourcing to Africa: A Relative Ranking of 15 Country Locations” by Cybermedia (India), a framework comprising of qualitative and quantitative assessment was followed. Parameters pertaining to outsourcing were carefully selected from reputed international studies. The data collected was converted to merit scores for Infrastructure, People and Skills and Business Environment and sub elements of these aspects. The unique methodology used to calculate the scores are described in chapter two of the report. The following qualitative aspects important in attracting a potential investor coming to the country to set up an outsourcing operation have been analysed by survey of literature, country visits and telephonic interviews.
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