By Ismail Musa Ladu
Kampala, Uganda – Sunday Monitor
At least 100,000 jobs in the ICT sector will be available for new graduates every year as the Ugandan government moves to implement an ambitious outsourcing plan. The announcement was made by Mr Aggrey Awori, the Minister of ICT, during the Third Business Outsourcing Process conference organised by the Competitiveness and Investment Climate Strategy in Kampala last week.
The ambitious initiative-Business Process Outsourcing, according to Mr Awori, will see young graduates not only take charge of the front office outsourcing – which includes customer-related services such as contact centre services, but also do internal business functions such as human resource, research and accounting outsourcing. He said: “Beginning today we shall begin the process of training students in higher institutions of learning in BOP.”
“With this project, they will be able to earn at least $5 per day while doing the work at their convenience, including working at home,” he added. BPO involves contracting operations and responsibilities of specific business functions (or processes) to a third-party service provider.
Worth noting is that the government will be encouraging its own agencies and institutions to outsource operations, as well as involve the private sector in the process of outsourcing. The project that targets to create about 100,000 jobs every year will be established upon putting up a call centre Makerere University.
Mr Peter Ngategize, the national coordinator of competitiveness and investment climate strategy, said for the initiative to take off as expected, local providers should train young graduates not only for the local market but also have focus on the global market.
Experts say the project, if well-implemented will relax on the pressure of unemployment that is a major challenge to the Ugandan government. BPO is a fairly new global industry and one of the fastest growing sectors in terms of job creation.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/Business/Commodities/-/688610/1090938/-/bxk9iw/-/
