Instead of Bangalore or Shanghai could it be Nairobi getting away with Fortune clients? Well, there are many countries in the world who are trying to reproduce the kind of success India and Philippines have achieved over the last decade. Kenya was always there on the fray for some time now with partial success and failure. Now with Government of Kenya coming in with incentives, the industry is hopeful that it will make a spectacular return in the BPO space.
The writer in this article is justifiably raising question about Kenya’s ability to gain blue chip contracts from US or European multinationals.
But he is hopeful. He writes 
The announcement last week that the Government will develop a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) park at a cost of Sh900 million within the 2008/9 financial year is excellent news. The question is: will it succeed?
The answer to this question is yes, as long as certain prerequisites are met. In addition to reliable communication facilities, guaranteed high quality work, galloping economic growth and a stable government, BPO business is built on a foundation of mutual trust.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) publication, E-Commerce and Development Report 2003, has excellent details of the prerequisites.
The paper has identified two broad categories of key success factors. The first category is what the Government needs to do. Government policy options include development of ICT infrastructure and access, prioritisation of education and especially e-commerce in schools, and provision of tax incentives.
While we have done fairly well on the first point, the second is wanting. IT needs to be made one of the top three priorities in Kenya. In addition, we need to make BPO part of our national agenda.
Though it is not the first time that Government of Kenya is pumping in millions of dollars to standardize nation’s dismal telecom system. But despite Government’s best effort companies like Skyweb-Evans suffered due to substandard infrastructure and abnormally high Internet connection rates. The Govt however in the recent past has installed fibre optic cables which connects East Africa to the rest of the world.
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