Outsourcing and Vision 2030: An analysis into Kenyas new economic frontier

Abstract

Vision 2030 is Kenya’s new blue print that aims at transforming the country into a middle income country by the year 2030. One of the identified sectors that will catalyst the achievement of Vision 2030 is Business Process Offshoring (BPO). Thousands of jobs are expected to be created in this sector whose strength is expected to come from a well trained manpower, Information Communication Technology ( ICT ) infrastructure and supportive Government policy. The arrival of EASSY, TEAMS and SEACOM undersea cables are seen as the first step in starting off this sector. This papers analyz es the state of Kenya’s readiness for BPO and makes bold recommendations on transforming Kenya into an outsourcing hub which can compete favorably with other hubs such as India and Philippines. The paper further analyses on how BPO can be scaled up to incl ude high value jobs such as in R and D, beyond the back office. The operational issues arising from BPO are also addressed