On 11^th May 2023, Ajira Digital organized an executives’ roundtable with the industry leaders in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) at a Hotel in Nairobi, to explore strategies that will help promote Kenya as a leading global labour choice destination for local, regional, and international organizations seeking digital talents and resources. This meeting was mainly advised by Ajira Program’s effort to create one million work opportunities annually for young people in the country through digital and digitally-enabled work.

This forum was attended by more than 100 industry leaders and other key stakeholders in the digital economy discussing different issues including the BPO sector globally and locally, the current landscape and BPO business in Kenya, the role of BPOs in job creation for young people, policies and regulatory framework as well as how to promote Kenya as a labour choice destination.

Here are some of the comments from different speakers and panelists:

“The global labor market is converging. Businesses in the West save up to 70% of the costs just through outsourcing hence the reason that inspired this meeting as we focus on growing the outsourcing industry to make Kenya a global freelancing hub while creating more work opportunities for young people in the digital space. The outsourcing sector needs to be structured to safeguard and future-proof its capacity as we all ensure wealth creation and growth of the economy.”- Dr. Ehud Gachugu, Director of Ajira Digital Program and Youth Employment at KEPSA.

“Major world economies are facing economic challenges, and Kenya is no exception. Unemployment among the youth is a significant issue in our country. According to the World Bank, at least 40% of young adults, or 5.2 million youth, in Kenya are unemployed. Therefore, the private sector has a crucial role to play in creating opportunities for young people. By championing the BPO sector, KEPSA aims to contribute to the growth of the sector, job creation, and economic growth.”- Davis Waithaka, Chair of the Digital skills and values subsector of the KEPSA ICT sector board as he represented Flora Mutahi, chairperson KEPSA.

“It is important to differentiate between BPO and digital work. Digital work is an umbrella and BPO is an enabler. CloudFactory for instance encourages remote working to ensure opportunities are spread out across the globe and organizations can tap into digital talents. As process outsourcing providers, we are keen on a country’s accessibility to outsource talents and other advantages such as good English-speaking nations, and resources that can deliver quality services among others. On this, Kenya has proved as good grounds for outsourcing.”- Jonathan Beardsley, General Manager Kenya and VP Global Expansion at CloudFactory

“Based on Kenya Vision 2030 blueprint, the ICT sector is expected to contribute 10% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the Kenyan economy. As an enabler, ICT has contributed immensely to improvement in e-government services, e-business, e-commerce, entrepreneurship, and digital skills and enhanced market competitiveness of the country’s products and services. The government digitization projects especially at the Judiciary have created lots of viable micro work that can be completed by digital workers”- Mohamed Jaben, Secretary of Administration, State Department of ICT and Digital Economy.

“As young people, we are tech-savvy and aware of the trends in the global village. I have managed to work with international clients on long-term contracts through Upwork platforms. The question is who and how many more clients know about our capabilities? This is why such forums are important and good to start convincing global clients of our capacities,” Joyce Kimani a digital work participant.

By partnering with industry-leading BPOs, Ajira Digital will unlock significant operational efficiencies and focus on delivering exceptional value to young people in the country. The resolutions will ultimately position the Ajira Digital program for sustained growth and enable the program to stay at the forefront of the industry.