Kenya as Outsourcing Destination

While the offshore outsourcing Industry has been dominated by India, China and countries in Central Europe and Southeast Asia, deteriorating cost advantages, improved labour quality and state-of-the art infrastructure are driving a dramatic shift in the geography of the industry. New players like Kenya are entering the field and challenging the existing players for a piece of the offshore outsourcing cake.

Kenya boasts a big pool of English-speaking professionals and its government has invested millions to improve its telecommunications infrastructure. Once some teething problems are addressed, Kenya could be one of the world's fastest developing outsourcing destinations due to its relatively low costs, and near shore status for European and Middle Eastern companies, putting it on par with its IT services competitors on the continent including South Africa, Mauritius, Egypt and Ghana. The East African nation could become a preferred destination for call centre and smaller business process outsourcing contracts.

This study provides a general overview of the current activities and issues related to the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry in Kenya. It considers a number of indicators from various secondary sources in order to assess Kenya’s attractiveness as an outsourcing destination. It identifies the country’s competitive strengths and weaknesses, identifies a strategic direction and lays out a series of recommendations which must be implemented in the short-term.