The directive comes at a time when the local BPO sector has been urging the government to lead the way and provide its non-core jobs to third parties to promote the sector.
Kenya’s BPO industry is estimated to be worth $5 million (Sh400m) with the US market accounting for nearly 80 per cent of the business.
The sector has been identified as a major cog in the Vision 2030 wheel, although critics fault the thinking and root for a deliberate support for entire IT platform.
The order is significant considering that countries like India have made it in the sector when the government took a leading role in providing its non-core work to third parties, which helps to nurture the industry and build image of local operators.
However, for it to succeed, the local operators are asking for a working committee that will include the BPO operators and concerned ministries.
Other than boosting the sector, President Kibaki said by automating the government services will help curb corruption in the public offices since it will reduce face-to-face interaction or cases of lost and misplaced files.
“To curb corruption in the use of public finances, the Government is automating its financial systems to ensure electronic procurement for goods and services by the Government, as well as electronic payments to vendors by end of next year,” said the President. “ I am also directing that lands and business registries be converted into electronic records.”
A number of ministries including Finance, Information and Communications, Lands, the State Law Office and the e-Government directorate will coordinate the exercise expected to be complete in 18 months.
A part from digitising its documents, the Judiciary is also to ensure the establishment of an e-registry and electronic recording of court proceedings within the same time.
Ms Gilda Odera, the chair of Kenya Contact Centre and BPO Society hailed the move, saying it would give the sector sustained workflow.
However, she asked that the membership be part of the steering committee.
“To actualise the project we would like a committee to be formed and our members included,” said Ms Odera.
“Digitising government work is huge and in order to provide job to every part of Kenya, it should be done at regional level which will also involve some training.”
The local BPO sector has taken a beating in the recent months due to the global economic crisis that has seen potential clients from US, cut back their offshore contracts, preferring to deal with companies in their country as a means of creating employment.
The Obama administration announced in May that it intends to remove tax breaks for US companies that shift jobs abroad and offer incentives to those that create jobs at home — a move that is also expected to help the world’s biggest economy to tackle currency fluctuation.
Competitive advantage
That announcement has opened the race for a presence in the US among the world’s leading outsourcing operators mainly based in India and the Philippines.
Many of these operators are setting up operations in the US hoping to gain competitive advantage for business from American firms that will be looking for new opportunities to escape the administration’s tax hurdle.
ICT experts say setting up bases in the US, should also help Indian outsourcing service providers to offer an optimal mix of onshore and offshore operations that will suit their clients’ needs and drive growth.
That is in turn moving the frontier of competition away from budding outsourcing operators such as Kenya’s who lack the financial muscle to acquire partners or set up operations in foreign markets.
This has, in turn, forced some local operators to device other means of getting these contracts by either merging with the US firms or acquiring them.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Okuttah Mark
Quelle/Source: Business Daily Africa, 16.12.2009
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