A US-based Business Processes Outsourcing (BPO) advisory company, Avasant, has been contracted by government to rebrand and market Ghana as a preferred BPO destination. The company has been given a two-year contract to gather data on the BPO market in the country and design promotional tools to market Ghana’s BPO potential both in the country and abroad. The Executive Secretary of the Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) and Secretariat of the Ministry of Communications, Alhassan Umar disclosed these to journalists in Accra. The deal, which was sealed in August this year after President Barack Obama’s visit to Ghana, is expected to last till November 2011 even though the company had started actual work on October 12, 2009. In the first phase, which spans the next two to three weeks, Avasant would come up with a mixed bag of promotional packages that would include websites, magazines, flyers and postcards, among others to promote Ghana’s BPO potentials. The BPO industry comprises of companies including banks, insurance companies and telecommunication operators. The government outsources its back office jobs such as customer care, call centre, business enquiries, data entry and other customer assistance services. According to Mr. Umar, the BPO industry generated about US$45 million into Ghana’s economy in the short term, adding that the country was targeting between 60 and 70 million dollars a year and $1 billion dollars per annum in the long-term. He added that the global leader in the BPO industry had more than two million workers and was generating billions of dollars as revenue per annum. At least 10 major BPO companies from Europe and US are targeting Ghana, while more local entities such as banks and insurance companies as well as other companies within the sub-region were expected to transfer their back office jobs to BPOs in Ghana. Under ITES, young people in the universities and polytechnics would be imbued with BPO skills though the development of special academic programme. This would help to produce enough personnel to promote investor confidence in the country’s BPO market. Muralidhar Thata, Country Manager for Avasant Ghana, said the country’s advantage as a potential BPO destination depended on the availability of huge surplus fibre optic cables (SAT-3, Glo-one and Main one), Government’s initiative on building ICT parks, political stability, smooth business registration system, tax incentives and the positive attitude of BPO staff towards customers. Challenges currently facing the country include the lack of visibility, public awareness about the BPO potential and cohesion between the various sectors of the economy, particularly in the area of ICT. The contract awarded to Avasant is part of the World Bank’s E-Ghana project, which seeks to establish electronic governance and voting and other systems in Ghana. Source: Daily Guide/Ghana