The Kenyan Government is working flat out on a legal framework that will give the Business Outsourcing Processing (BPO) sector legal footing and certainty. This was said by Dr Bitange Ndemo the Permanent Secretary (PS), in the Ministry of Information and Communication while addressing participants of the second stakeholder workshop on the BPO Centre of Excellence initiative.
Dr Ndemo said the Government is specifically looking at the Freedom of Information and Data Protection pieces of legislation, which will give the sector credibility and provide legal certainty for business wishing to outsource their operations in Kenya.
BPO forms one of the pillars of the Kenyan Government Vision 2030. The PS said the ICT sector, where the BPO is domiciled, is at the moment way ahead on the targeted timeline in the vision 2030 calendar. "The sector has moved way ahead of it schedule and we will attract more foreign businesses to

outsource in Kenya if we put more resources in the sector," Ndemo said.

As a way of strengthening the operators in the sector, the government will relocate most BPO operators to the state-of-the-art Sameer Business Park on Mombasa Road. Here the operators will have access to clean power, connectivity and other business advisory services. These are basic necessities for successful BPO operations.

Ndemo said the smallest enterprises have the potential of growing to become big BPO operators and that the government was going to ensure that resources for marketing the sector and capacity building are made available. He said the special economic zone policy document and bill would also create incentives to the sector.

Prof Tim Waema, a researcher and private consultant said that Universities, both private and public, are producing over 2000 computer science and technology students every year; the BPO sector can absorb these thus creating employment and at the same time contributing to digital content resource in the country.

He said majority of the Kenyan BPO Centre firms still operate on the low-end back office operations because of poor infrastructure, but he added that that was now not a major hindrance because the ICT infrastructure has improved drastically over the past one year.