Report Overview

Africa’s domestic and international Global Business Service/Business Process Outsourcing (GBS/BPO) market size is estimated to be US$18,6 billion. The key factors driving Africa’s GBS/BPO expansion include highly competitive cost savings compared to other global locations, modernizing infrastructure and increasing investment from both government and private players into the continent’s GBS/BPO sector.

Sample GBS/BPO Locations Industry Estimated Market Size: Domestic and International:

Enabling Infrastructure

Although the striking facilitator of Africa’s GBS/BPO growth is the continent’s rapidly developing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, which is not only boosting internet usage but also increasing the reliability and speed of connectivity. As such, GBS/BPO services can be effectively delivered to domestic, regional and global destinations, while ensuring business continuity.

Multilingual Talent

Another pertinent factor influencing GBS/BPO growth in Africa is its multilingual capabilities, which it leverages to attract and service key international source markets. English is the dominant non-indigenous language spoken by hundreds of millions of African inhabitants, a notable portion of which speak English at a B2 level or those who have the necessary fluency to communicate without effort with native speakers. French, Arabic and Portuguese are other prominent languages spoken fluently within the continent. In this way, significant growth in GBS/BPO delivery has been achieved with source markets, such as North America, Europe, the UK, Middle East, Australia and Central and Latin America (CALA).

A majority of these multilingual speakers consists of Africa’s large youth population, accounting for 29% of the profiled African countries’ total population. These are educated, customer-centric workers who have high energy, contributing to the growth of the continent’s contact/call center and customer experience (CX) outsourcing activities, which require the aforementioned traits.

Further deepening Africa’s talent pool and shaping the continent’s GBS/BPO growth trajectory is its significant reserve of impact sourcing workers, which are increasingly being tapped by buyers and operators. Impact sourcing is the business practice where a company intentionally hires and provides career opportunities to socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals as principal workers. Using African impact sourcing workers does not only form part of GBS/BPO buyer’s and operator’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies, but is a key component in business optimization and talent development.

Business Process Services (BPS)/Contact Center Services Insights

The contact center capabilities among global and African-born GBS/BPO operators have broadened to a mix of non-complex and complex services. The most prevalent contact center service delivered from Africa is inbound customer service and support (26.82%), which can be attributed to the global, regional and domestic demand for product and service query resolution. Inbound customer service and support is channeled through voice, email, web chat, social media and other channels.

Illustrating Africa’s burgeoning digital channel capabilities is its ability to deliver digital contact center services, such as social media support and web chat. More complex digital contact center deliverables are evolving out of the continent, especially in chat bot services, speech self-service and video chat. Meanwhile, debt recovery is another emerging contact center service among African-based operators.

Outsourced Contact Center Services Delivered from Profiled African Countries:

When viewing Business Process Services (BPS) delivered, IT Outsourcing (ITO) is the dominant BPS delivered by approximately 36.9% of operators among the profiled African countries. Finance and accounting (F&A), legal process outsourcing (LPO) and data analytics are some of the other BPS delivered from the profiled African countries.

Business Process Services (BPS) Delivered from Profiled African Countries:

Report Coverage and Deliverables

Africa GBS/BPO Market Report Scope

Customization scopeAvailability of an extended data bank of all 26 profiled countries.

Frequently Asked Questions About This Report

Table of Contents

4. Introduction.

6. Africa GBS/BPO Core Value Proposition.

7. Africa GBS/BPO Industry Key Highlights.

8. Methodology.

10. Africa GBS/BPO SWOT Analysis.

11. Sample Country Highlights.

14. Sample GBS/BPO Locations Industry Estimated Market

15. Size: Domestic and International.

16. Gross Domestic Product.

17. Total Population.

18. Youth Population (18-35 Years).

19. Estimated English-speaking Population.

20. Sample African GBS/BPO Locations Estimated B2 English-speaking Addressable Talent Pool.

21. Sample GBS/BPO Location Estimated Potential Monthly Ramp-Speeds for New Hires for B2 English-speaking Talent.

22. Impact Sourcing.

23. Fully Loaded Operating Costs.

24. Africa Business Process Services (BPS)/Contact Center Services Delivered.

25. Africa in General Political Environment.

27. ICT Infrastructure.

30. Transport Infrastructure.

30. Road Infrastructure.

31. Transport for Agents.

31. Air Infrastructure.

32. Commercial Property.

33. GBS World Customer Lifecycle Management Competitiveness Index.

34. GBS World Digital and ITO Competitiveness Index.

35. Conclusion.

Introduction

Africa is quickly emerging as the next frontier for business process outsourcing (BPO) and broader global business services (GBS). The continent is increasingly on the radar of buyers, operators and investors drawn by its low cost, a track record of high-quality outcomes and skilled, empathetic English-speaking workforce with pockets of multilingual talent.

Key Challenges 

However, Africa faces numerous economic, social and political challenges. The most pressing of these issues is poverty, with around 43% of Africans living below the international poverty line . As a result, unemployment rates have remained high, although this can be seen as an advantage for GBS/BPO operators looking to tap into a largely available pool of talent.

Furthermore, many African nations suffer from weak governance due to corruption, lack of accountability and ineffective public services. These issues lead to a range of difficulties such as poor access to healthcare, nutrition and education for many people on the continent.

To help solve these issues, collaboration between key private, public and non-government role players is required to promote economic development, improve infrastructure and create sustainable jobs. This is already evidenced in budding stakeholder ecosystems, especially in the GBS/BPO market, between educational institutions, government and industry bodies, non-profit organizations and private GBS/BPO operators and buyers.

As such, this has fostered an upward trajectory of the continent’s GBS/BPO growth, supported by expanding GBS/BPO capabilities and market maturity, while the international audience increasingly recognize Africa’s potential as a global delivery location.

Report Insights

To help one understand insights into the continent’s potential as a GBS/BPO destination, the 2023 Africa GBS Benchmarking and Market Report profiled 26 African countries as GBS locations for global and local investors and buyers.

The report provides key insights into the GBS/BPO sector and regional competitiveness of each country. As such, detailed macro-economic and demographic data is provided on each country along with reviews of their enabling infrastructure, business and investment environments.

The extended data bank of the report includes country GBS/BPO profiles and sections covering market trends, outsourcing investment priorities and enabling digital technology, people, processes and capabilities. In addition, it includes country score cards and rankings including customer lifecycle management, digital and IT outsourcing, data management, back-office processing and customer administration.

This abridged version of the report provides key data points of selected sample countries, presenting a salient snapshot from the data bank of the full report and giving the discerning global investor a quick view of what is to come.

Methodology

The fieldwork for the 2023 Africa GBS Benchmarking & Market Report consists of profiling 26 African countries with 587 profiling surveys and interviews with GBS service providers, delivery centres, and key stakeholders in each location. This provided key insights into the GBS/BPO sector and regional competitiveness of each country.

As a result, detailed macro-economic and demographic data is provided on each country along with reviews of their enabling infrastructure, business and investment environments.

Key data pertaining to the GBS/BPO markets in each African country was compiled from the profiling surveys that provide overviews of the GBS and ICT/ITES capabilities, skills, multilingual capabilities (particularly English), impact sourcing, services, strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities of each country.

Moreover, market trends, sizes, salary and opex reviews were corroborated and validated on each country.

We have referenced published reports and data sets, either published by or own organization or obtainable from publicly available sources.

Each Country Profile Includes the Following Data, Statistics and Information:

• GBS/BPO and CX Highlights
• Population and Economic Indicators
• Global Credit Ratings
• Macroeconomic and Business Overview
• Property and Employment Market
• ICT and Transport Infrastructure
• GBS/BPO Overview
• BPO and CX Services and Salaries
• CX and Contact Centre Services
• BPS and Specialist Services
• BPO and CX Operators and Brands
• Total and B2 English-speaking Addressable Talent Pool
• Fully Loaded (FTE) Monthly Costs Comparison
• Diversity, Inclusion and Impact Sourcing
• Hybrid Working Models
• Skills Development Training
• Multilingual Capabilities
• ICT and ITO Services
• Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)
• Investment Environment Overview
• Performance Review and Global Competitiveness
• Global Talent Competitiveness