[kictanet] Presentations from Connected Government...+ BPO eDiscussion Report

Wed Mar 31 12:08:52 EAT 2010

Kobia,
I noted you mentioned BPO as one of the upcoming discussions at the Summit.  I therefore take this opportunity to upload the summaries of the BPO discussions held mid last year.  

More specifically, there was heavy and pending Government interventions as copied below  in the Executive summary.  Maybe if the Permanent Secretaries can commit to implementing on some them during your meeting, then those of us not invited will begin to feel it wasnt after all purely pleasure at Leisure Lodge ;-)

walu.
----begins---
     Executive Summary

A team of Researchers (BPO
Researchers) were commissioned by IDRC to do a study titled:  Development of a Business Process
Outsourcing Industry in Kenya: Critical Success Factors. The aim of this
study was “to undertake comprehensive research in the business process
outsourcing (BPO) sub-sector in pioneer, emerging and mature markets to provide
evidence and a deeper understanding of the imperatives for success in this
industry to better inform Kenya’s policy decisions and investment choices”. The
studies were  conducted in two client
countries, namely United Kingdom
and the United States of America
and four vendor countries, namely Kenya,
South Africa, India and Mauritius.

After the above study was
completed, the Researchers had preliminary Results/Reports (Synthesis) that
they felt needed to be discussed by Stakeholders with the aim of cross-checking
and validating some of the preliminary conclusions.  KICTAnet, a multi-stakeholder forum was
chosen as the platform to subject the preliminary findings of the study to the
Stakeholders.

The Stakeholders discussed
the Research Synthesised findings under various BPO themes that included: Policy, Legal and
Institutional (Governance) Frameworks, Subsidies, Human capacity Issues, Youth
& Gender issues and Strengths & Challenges facing the BPO sector. 
Notable feedback on the BPO Governance Frameworks was the lack of
enabling legislation specifically the Data Protection and the Freedom of
Information Acts. Lack of enforceable Standards for BPO Training and Operations
in the industry was also cited as a barrier to provisioning high quality
standards of service.  Negative
publicity, general insecurity and unreliable Utilities (power, road,
telecommunication) presented institutional challenges that made it difficult to
sell Kenya
as a favourable BPO destination.

With
regard to Human Capacity, the lack of a standardized BPO curriculum, lack of a
National Skill-set Register and little or no experience for the BPO Operators
made Kenya's BPO labour market less competitive. Domestic
"outsourcing" both from Government and Private Sector was proposed as
the best way to demonstrate confidence while providing experience to the
emerging BPO industry.  The question of
Subsidies for the sector was highly contentious with some participants pushing
for an array of benefits - Tax-holidays, Utility and Training Subsidies,
Government Contracts, amongst others. Those against subsidies argued that BPO
is a sub-sector just like any other and therefore should not enjoy Government-subsidies
at the exclusion of the others. 

The
Youth and Gender discussion revealed that lack of clear, career-path
progression meant that most youth in the BPO sector considered their jobs as a
stop-gap measure to a better opportunity elsewhere.  It was also observed the that Kenyan Labour
law that afforded mothers 3months maternity leave meant that employers
implicitly preferred male employees. Finally, participants discussed the
Strengths and Challenges, noting the advent of the undersea cable as the biggest
strength while Negative Publicity as the biggest weakness. 

---ends---

walu.

--- On Wed, 3/31/10, Kaburo Kobia <kkobia at ict.go.ke> wrote:

From: Kaburo Kobia <kkobia at ict.go.ke>
Subject: [kictanet] Presentations from Connected Government Summit 2010
To: jwalu at yahoo.com
Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Date: Wednesday, March 31, 2010, 12:14 PM

Dear all,
Presentations from Connected Gov Summit 2010 are now available online. We are also taking questions from twitter and the Connected Gov website (click on Comments/Question and post your question or comment).

Presentations include: 
- Opening speech by the Minister of Information and Communications Hon Samuel Poghisio
- From reform to transformation by Emmanuel Lubembe Head Public Service Transformation Department 

- Transforming Company registry by Wanjuki Muchemi, Solicitor General
- and several presentations from private sector.

Today we expect to hear from more government departments on their digitization projects, some local SMEs and BPO companies. Please view the program here. 

Visit: www.ict.go.ke/connectedgov
Track on twitter: #connectedgov

Regards,
--

Kaburo Kobia
Kenya ICT Board
Project Manager: Local Digital Content
Kenya ICT Board

Telposta Towers, 12th Floor, Kenyatta Avenue
P.O Box 27150 - 00100 Nairobi, Kenya
t: + 254-020-2093040 | m: + 254 (0)729466260 | w: www.ict.go.ke

---------------------
The Kenya ICT Board Mission: To champion and actively enable Kenya to adopt and exploit ICT, through promotion of partnerships, investments and infrastructure growth for socio economic enrichment

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