Outsourcing industry growing in Africaby Ioana Madalina Tantareanu

For developing countries, outsourcing is big business. Starting always with call centers, some countries like India or China now produce major parts of equipment for Western companies and are renowned for their small wages and hard working employees. These employees are being constantly trained on the job and many have become very good professionals. Even though some Indian software products don't quite meet American standards, the low level of interest in science from American students means that IT companies are forced to hire outside programmers who fit their needs. In recent years, outsourcing has become quite a phenomenon in Africa, too. Countries like South Africa and Ghana take advantage of their natives' near-perfect English accent and opened telemarketing companies to call the UK and the US. Ex-French colonies like Morocco and Tunisia try to contact French speakers and the business is going great, even though it may take a while to catch up with the Asian rivals. This would also be a great way to pull Africa from its under-development: telecommunications companies have had to build the infrastructure needed for long distance calls and thus brought countries like Kenya a little bit closer to 20th century technology. There is still a long way to go, as the continent lacks IT specialists and is facing a severe brain-drain, as well as a passive and pessimistic mindset. Now the Africans have found the way to success, it's only up to them to create strong corporations and start making life better for themselves.

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by Ioana Madalina Tantareanu for SigEx Ventures (http://sigexventures.com)

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