Ghana Targets 4,000 Jobs From ICT

GHANA IS aiming at generating about 4,000 jobs and about a billion dollars worth of revenue from business processing outsourcing (BPO) in the short term, Mavis Ampah, a Senior ICT Policy Analyst at the World Bank has stated.

According to her, this is possible given the over 20 registered ICT companies in Ghana currently employing over 3,000 people 1,000 of which was created last year.

Some ancillary sectors to benefit from this job boom include the transportation sector, real estate, catering and also capacity enhancement.

�The exponential growth registered in other countries is yet to be witnessed here even though we see lots of opportunities for Ghana.

There is a lot that needed to be done regarding the right policies, infrastructure, skills improvement and the environment generally.�

Ms Ampah said Ghana was looking forward to rub shoulders with countries like India whose BPO sector employs about two million people, South Africa, which employs about 50,000 and Mauritius which has registered 7,000 jobs from outsourcing. Estimating global BPO worth to be around $70 billion, she said only 15 percent has so far been realized.

Kofi Afedzie Hayford, Chief Executive Officer of e-Services, in a welcome address, stated that the history of BPO in Ghana dates back to some 15 years. This was when ACS, an American player decided to offshore some of its operations � a tier three one.

�As a lone voice in the wilderness, ACS has been shaping the future and turning Ghana from a tier three destination to the modern levels achieved by India, Vietnam, the Phillipines, among others.

Umar Alhassan, Director, ITES, in a remark said it was time Ghana�s BPO was linked with investment promotion and industrial support in order to obtain a greater share of global ICT.

Source: Business Guide