The local Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry has received a shot in the arm with the injection of Sh75.6million ($900,000) by an international IT firm that has set up shop in Nairobi.

Digital Divide Data (DDD) Kenya will offer services such as data entry, electronic publishing, and back-office administrative tasks to customers in East Africa as well as international markets.

“DDD is a social enterprise in the BPO sector. We have ambitious goals of developing local, regional and international markets in this sector. This is a dynamic market with leading companies modernising their businesses. We believe this is the right time for DDD to bring strong BPO service offerings to clients in East Africa,” said the Chief Executive Officer Amolo Ng’weno.

The outsourcing firm has been operating in South East Asia for the last 10 years where they are mostly involved in services such as digitising newspapers, journals, data entry, as well as digitising records in the financial sector there.

“We expect that the market in Kenya will be as large and potentially larger and more interesting,” Ms Ng’weno said ahead of the official launch on Tuesday evening.

The $900,000 fund was received from the Rockefeller Foundation in addition to some grants received from Microsoft and Cisco in support of the firm’s desire to innovate and also its social mission which involves hiring young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Ms Ng’weno said they have already hired 50 local youth and looking to expand this number to 300 in the next two years.

“We will employ young people who have graduated from high school and who are in the 18 to 24 age bracket and we are particularly those from Nairobi’s slum areas and those with disabilities,” she said adding that they are liaising with non governmental organisations working in those communities to identify such needy and qualified youth.

Besides the high literacy levels and relatively good English that is spoken in the country, Mrs Ng’weno said they chose Kenya for its vibrant private sector which they hope will be one of their major clients.

In Laos and Cambodia, only 20 percent of their work comes from the local and regional market. However, the firm expects the proportion to be reverse in East Africa with 70 to 80 percent of the business coming from the domestic or local economy.

“DDD Kenya will offer a set of high-quality services to help publishers, financial services firms, telecommunications operators, government agencies, libraries and other organisations resolve paperwork backlogs and streamline customer records management,” the CEO who was the founder of Internet Service Provider, Africa Online, said.

The firm’s global CEO Jeremy Hockenstein said by bringing their 10 years expertise into Kenya and providing back office services for the local market, he hoped that they would bring in efficiency into these companies and in the economy.

This he said would eventually translate to a big growth for the BPO sector in the next few years just like the flourishing IT sector in Cambodia.

Mr Hockenstein appreciated that just like any other start up; they would face challenges such as in the area of training and bringing the international technology experience into the country.

However, these challenges he said are not insurmountable and going by the number of international clients that they already have, he believed that they would be able to deal with any challenge as they embark on establishing their operations.

Source:http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/business/Kenyabusiness/BPO-firm-pumps-Sh75m-into-Kenya-5841.html

The landing of the fibre optic cable boosted Kenya’s thrust to get a slice of the lucrative outsourcing business. Several months later, Financial Journal’s James Ratemo caught up with Information PS BITANGE NDEMO on the developments in the sector so far

QUESTION: How far is Kenya as regards fibre optic cable connectivity?

A: With the arrival of the undersea optic cables, bandwidth costs are no more a hindrance in doing business. We are currently building on the last mile connectivity, which will be an open access platform. The constraint is to get to people’s homes. Fortunately, we already have many investors working on this front.

Q: On last mile connectivity, what is the progress?

A: The Government has installed more than 5,000Km of fibre countrywide, from Isebania to

Moyale, from Lamu to Lokichoggio, from Garissa to Busia and traversing all the other towns in-between.

Combined with what private investors have done, we have over 20,000km terrestrial cable, criss-crossing the country.

In general, Kenya has several fibre cables forming a formidable network. They include East African Marine System, Teams, Seacom, Eassy, Telkom’s Lion and satellite network.

Q: How far is the rollout of digital villages in the country?

A: Kenya ICT Board is facilitating the establishment of digital access centres, to be known as Pasha (Swahili for information) Centres across the country.

Private investors like Safaricom are also rolling out digital villages across the country to complement Government efforts.

Through Family Bank, the Government grants a loan of up to Sh3 million to an entrepreneur to set up set up a digital centre or expand an existing one.

The Kenya ICT Board is liaising with the public sector and content providers who may want to access the public through the Pasha network.

Information PS says Kenya is on track to transiting into a completely ICT economy. Photo: File/Standard

The board will also provide a consultant to support the technical set up and management. The Board will also offer branding and communication support in order to manage the Pasha Brand and drive consumer interest and usage.

Q: What makes Kenya a preferred destination of

Business Processing and Outsourcing (BPO)?

A. Outsourcing business is the next ‘big thing’ and as a country, we have staged an aggressive marketing campaign as a suitable BPO destination.

Kenya’s highly educated, largely English-speaking population is also a plus for the country.

Kenyans have the right education and the right accent, which is pre-requisite for success in the sector.

The sector has all the opportunities to grow as envisioned in Vision 2030, which identifies ICT as a key pillar for growth with BPO taken as a flagship project.

Q: How have we utilised ICT to cut down the number of licences involved to start a business?

A: So far, digitisation of company registry has made registering a business much faster. Cases of corruption due to manual systems in the company registry, Lands registry and the Judiciary will be a thing of the past as digitisation of all records enters final stages.

Q. Is e-government a reality yet or it is still a pipe dream?

A: E-Government is a reality and has been a reality for more than five years now. There are human resources, systems and structure that support the e-government functions. The website www.e-government.go.ke for instance reveals some of the services on offer and what the Government envisages to achieve by going digital.

The Government of Kenya Shared Services Project is the first step in building a platform to enable the Government to deliver improved services to citizens.

The IT Shared Services Centre will be implemented over a number of years according to the Shared Services Roadmap.

Q: What will the Government achieve by going digital in her services?

A: An IT Shared Services Centre will allow Government to focus on core responsibilities and enable them to operate more efficiently with IT services being provided by a dedicated organisation.

Q. How far is the country from completely shifting from analogue to digital broadcasting?

A. We are on track. By 2012, the country plans to completely switch over to the digital platform ahead of the global deadline of June 2015 spearheaded by the International Telecommunication union.

Kenya is one of the few countries in Africa to embark on migration, having set 2012 as the deadline for the analogue television switch-off.

Source:http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/sports/InsidePage.php?id=2000028497&cid=14