By EMEKA AGINAM

For Nigeria to fast track the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, especially in employment creation ,  right policy  and regulatory environment must be put in place  to win the confidence of the service providers and industries that may be willing to use the  country  as a Business Process Outsourcing,  BPO, destination,  the Group Chief Executive Officer of Communications Network Support Services Limited, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo has said.

This is even as studies have shown that Nigeria is the next major destination for Business Process Outsourcing, BPO after India and the Philippines who currently have the highest number of Contact center operators.
Business process outsourcing (BPO) involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of specific business functions or processes  to a third-party service provider.

Adebayo who stated  this in a press conference last week  on BPO in Nigeria shortly after a  media tour of  CNSSL Contact Centre, an  ultra modern call center at Mayfair gardens, Lagos told IT Journalists that Nigeria  has a good chance of creating millions of job for graduates if local firms were encouraged in BPO with right policies.

Policy and regulatory environment:
Adebayo who is also the President Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria, ALTON, stressed that,   “We have a high number of graduates and the quality of training they receive is adequate for BPO service for needing industries across the world. But our policy and regulatory environment must be right, in order to win the confidence of the service providers and industries that may be willing to use Nigeria as a BPO destination”.

According to him, the  Nigeria Telecom industry is one of the highest contributors to our National GDP above 10% and also, one of the highest consistent contributors to our FDI over the past 13yrs.

CNSLL employs 6000 graduates :
“In CNSLL we are contributing our little best to our national economic development. We are one of the highest employers of labour in the telecom Industry today, with our over 6000 graduate employee workforce.

“We are grateful to our Principal Partner MTN Nigeria for the opportunity to support them and MTN by this is an example of a Company supporting local companies in the development of our national human capital among other things.
“We wish other Big organizations will emulate MTN in this regard in order to enable us take the full benefits accruable from BPO.

BPO can solve unemployment problems:
“ Imagine if many young enterprises in Nigeria will engage the number we talking about in BPO how well it will solve our unemployment problems. “We saw an early opportunity in business process outsourcing BPO and over the past seven years since our establishment we have developed capacity and human capital to support the telecom industry in Nigeria and other, sectors requiring our type of services in the economy, such as the power Sector, oil and gas sector, banking and finance, among others, he explained.

Indian example:
According to him, India has revenues of US$10.9 billion from offshore BPO and over US$30 billion from IT and total BPO. India thus has some 7% share of the total BPO Industry, but a commanding 63% share of the offshore component.

Philippines,South Africa:
Other locations like Philip-pines, and South Africa,  he said have emerged to take a share of the market.
The South African call center industry has grown and directly employs about 74 000 people, contributing over 0.92% to South Africa’s gross domestic product(GDP).

China:
“China is also trying to grow from a very small base in this industry. However, while the BPO industry is expected to continue to grow in India, its market share of the offshore piece is expected to decline.  The Philippines has over-taken India as the largest call center industry in the world in 2010” he explained.

Eastern Europe:
Eastern Europe, the ALTON explained is also an emerging BPO destination. Report has it that in 2010, 33,000 jobs were moved to Eastern European countries., he said.

While the overall size of the industry and the number of developers in Eastern Europe is lower than India, the knowledge of European language such as French, Spanish, German and Italian by many Eastern Europeans, as well as the overall high quality of education in these locations, according to him allows the BPO industry in this region to continue to grow.

“For example, the region has an estimated 17.2 million people with a tertiary education, compared to 13.6 million in India, making it an attractive choice for BPO, especially if more specialized projects are to be outsourced” he added.