Business Process Outsourcing – Untapped economic goldmine in Nigeria – Experts
Experts have advised the Federal government not to undermine the potentials to grow the nation’s economy through Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), the sub-sector, they said its viable to attract multiple Foreign Direct investments that will in two years tame unemployment syndrome and turn-up contributions to the nation’s Gross Domestic Products(GDP) from the industry.
The experts also said there is need for the review of the Business Process Outsourcing laws enacted in 2011 describing it as stale regulation that needed to be reviewed.
They explained that for Nigeria to fully harness national wealth and economic prosperity attention has to be shifted to outsourcing services just as the subsisting laws and its regulatory proprietary governing should be reviewed in-time to reflect global and best practices.
While speaking at the one –day Educational Workshop on why Nigerian businesses need outsourcing under the theme; “Improving Process Efficiency, Service Delivery, and Cost Effectiveness in the Nigeria Business Sector through Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Services”, the technology, investment and economic resource persons shared common views that domestic patronage of outsourcing services will metamorphose to Nigerian success at the international market.
Nigeria also need to follow the lead of India, China, America, who are today sustaining upward growth in their economy by addressing the challenge of mass unemployment and teeming population through the adoption of outsourcing services as a national regulatory law for both its private and public sectors, they said.
In the view of the President, Nigeria Association of Information Technology Enabled Business Process Outsourcing, Mr. David Onu, Outsourcing services really need to be backed by law and be embraced by domestic companies before gaining international investors into the country.
He added, that “we estimate that Just domestic outsourcing alone can create a minimum of 250,000 jobs within the next 18 months.,, clear example,, there are 23 major banks in the country, on the average they have about 3,000,000 customers on their books, and most of these telcos and banks do not have call centres that have about 100 seats,,, what that means is that if you have 3,000.000 customers, how many people can 100 customer care attend to efficiently? That is a problem.
“Just by speaking to that need the bank will increase customer needs and customers satisfaction and also increase profits, because if you are happy with your bank you will surely do more.”
According to Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission, Ms Yewande Sadiku represented at the forum by Chief investments Officer, Daniel Awurum, the commission finds the sector appealing and is ready to give support to the various agencies in the industry.
She said, “What interests us most is the capacity this sector has to bridge the unemployment gap. Countries like China, India, South Africa, Egypt and Ghana are really catching up on this sector. When you see that countries like India that the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is contributing about 6% to their GDP we thought that it is a very big deal.
And we have also checked the demography find out that over 60% of our work force fall within this sector more than Agriculture and other sector, so we are associating with this sector and ready to give maximum support.”
Growth and Employment in States (GEMS), at the forum reiterated commitment to support domestic BPO industry with funds from the United Kingdom as on of the ways to support upward growth in the nation’s economy.
Represented by Jumobi Fashola said, “we will support areas of ICT , including cloud technology and local data hosting by businesses and organizations in Nigeria and in focus the outsourcing industry.”
Apparently there is need for awareness and more enlightenment if outsourcing services will fly in Nigeria, this, according to Onu informed the objective of the workshop stating that “Our primary goal was to increase understanding of outsourcing and the need for Nigerian organizations to promote Local content expert in the industry hiring for excellent and quality service delivery.
Outsourcing is a practice used by different companies to reduce costs by transferring portions of work to outside suppliers rather than completing it internally he explained, adding it should be implemented for cost-saving business strategy among companies in Nigeria.
Source: Thenationonline.net
