Who is marketing Uganda's BPO industry?

By Ainebyoona S. Timon

A story is told of Lady Lorna who wrote passionately for more than 70 years without sharing her writing with others. Then, in her late eighties, she decided to write a novel called “A Dangerous Weakness”.

But did she show it to anybody? No, she put it into a suitcase and forgot about it. Until her daughter-in-law happened to find the manuscript and made Lorna send it to a publisher. What happened next was any writer’s dream: Lorna suddenly went from poverty to affluence at age 93.

You must learn to blow your own trumpet is the moral of this story.

In early 2011, the Government of Uganda (NITA-U) and Makerere University partnered with Orion Outsource World and the African BPO Academy (ABA) to deliver a training curriculum and in April 2011, 500 youth graduated with international Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) skills.

This was in fulfillment of the presidential directive on BPO in a bid to address the youth unemployment problem.

So, two years down the road, a challenging question needs to be asked: “How is the BPO industry doing?”  Well, the BPO centre at Statistics House is up and running. The centre has created 100 jobs and promises a more 150 in the financial year 2013/2014. The answer is “not bad.”

But honestly we can do better, for an industry with a potential to create 100,000 jobs as once said by the former ICT minister, Aggrey Awori. This is below average.

A quick Google search on the BPO industry in Uganda shows minimal effort to brand Uganda as a BPO destination country. Uganda Business Process Outsourcing Association (UBPOA), an umbrella association for the BPO/ITES industry in Uganda is not helping either.

What then do we do?

• Completely ignore the question of whether BPO works focus on the fact that this was a launch of a “powerful new product” that requires a wide branding campaign using massive online and offline media platforms.

• The need for a true success story. Kenya was lucky KenCall did the magic. The Government too can do this for instance; instead of the Government (NITA-U) renting the BPO centre to private companies, the Government should run the centre by itself. At this early stage, it is easier to attract international clients as a government than it is for local companies.

My recommendation above is the simplest way to attempt this. To rigorously prove value, we could all work together to create a BPO brand.

The truth is, the BPO industry is the quickest solution to Uganda’s youth unemployment question. But one wonders, why is it so hard to measure its value? How can we do better? Why don't companies spend on outsourcing?

Having worked with six BPO companies has helped me arrive at two conclusions: We (BPO Agents, CEOs and the Government) know exactly the uniqueness of Uganda’s BPO industry and the positives it can bring to our economy but we are too reluctant to unveil ourselves to the world. This makes me really sad.

The good news though is all hope is not lost we can up our game by raising our profile through marketing campaigns, getting published and making use of social media. Putting ourselves out there and getting recognised
Sometimes you need to blow your own trumpet!

The writer is a private ICT practitioner/BPO sympathiser
ainetimon@yahoo.com