By Charles Mgbolu
The African Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector is set for growth following Bharti Airtel’s selection of IBM, Tech Mahindra and Spanco as partners to pursue world class customer service across 16 African countries. An agreement is expected to be finalized soon.

Under the agreement Bharti Airtel will outsource core customer service functions like call centres and back office as it prepares for significant growth in the region.  The operator currently has over 40 million customers across its African operations and is targeting to achieve 100 million by 2013.

The selection of world class partners like IBM, Tech Mahindra and Spanco will enable Bharti Airtel’s mobile customers to enjoy quality customer service with the partners introducing quality best practices based on their experiences of working with international organisations in the telecommunications, banking, finance, insurance and retail sectors.

The widespread adoption of the BPO model by Bharti Airtel across its operations will also have tangible benefits for development of the sector in each country, create additional job opportunities and develop local talent.

The partners will provide services in each market which will sustain and build skills, capabilities and resources. The outsourcing of customer service operations will play a key role in making Bharti Airtel competitive in Africa as it focuses on making mobile communications affordable and available to everyone across its 16 markets of operation.

Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) and Joint Managing Director, Bharti Airtel, said:  “Our partnership with IBM, Tech Mahindra and Spanco is aimed at redefining and providing a world class and seamless customer experience in all 16 countries.  The BPO model has significant benefits for our customers, the countries in which we operate and their economies.  Partnering with world class organisations on such a massive scale will galvanise the BPO sector in Africa and be a catalyst for growth in the sector.

“These partnerships will offer career enhancement opportunities to our team in this specialist field as they will now get exposure to global best practices and the latest technologies.”

This is the second major partnership announcement from Bharti Airtel on the African subcontinent.  In September this year Bharti selected IBM to build and manage IT systems to power the mobile communications network across 16 African countries.