Trade or Aid? Outsourcing to Africa Edition

According to Datamonitor, Morocco and Tunisia are ideal locations for customer care servicing French speaking nations, whose offshore outsourcing options are very limited. In addition, however, Morocco is developing bases of English and Spanish speaking talent. Egypt continues to impress western investors with its mix of savvy and linguistically-talented agents, low costs and ever-growing blue-chip investors who have housed customer care in that location. Sub-Saharan Africa, while not traditionally a location of choice for serving western customers, has emerged as a niche market for western customer service. Countries like Botswana, Ghana and Kenya have made headlines with their pro-active moves to put themselves on the BPO map. South Africa remains a dominant and ever-maturing market for contact center outsourcing services, especially in the area of value-added functions. Spoken English is among the best anywhere and the commercial acumen of agents is first-rate.