E-Business
Africa now Outsourcing Sector Destination of Choice

The salary ranges of African contact centre agents are anything between $546 and $175 per month. Meanwhile, a contact centre manager can earn up to $2 200, to a minimum of $406 per month.
These findings emerged in a new report that plots the growth of global business services (GBS), also known as business process outsourcing (BPO), on the African continent.
The “2021 Africa Global Business Services (GBS) Benchmarking and Market Report” was conducted by Knowledge Executive between February and July.
It is based on profiling surveys of 504 GBS/BPO service providers, delivery centres, analysts and stakeholders across 19 African nations regarded as having mature and emerging GBS and BPO sectors.
Africa’s large youth population and its “competitive” salary and labour costs are among the drivers behind its rise as an industry powerhouse.
The continent has an abundance of educated youth within its labour pool, with many equipped with multilingual proficiency in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, and some German, Chinese and Italian expertise in some instances, states the report.
This workforce also has high levels of empathy and emotional intelligence. There are also low attrition rates, and strong investor support and incentives.
Speaking during a webinar announcing the report’s findings, Mark Angus, CEO and managing editor of Knowledge Executive, a Pan-African research and media firm, said the African global business services sector is poised for exponential growth over the next three years.
Angus noted that a large population of African youth are entering the labour market. “Youth employees are more suited for GBS operations, as they have the energy, the tenacity to handle the high-paced environment of GBS and BPO operations, especially call centres.”
The salary ranges of African contact centre agents are highly competitive compared to those in the European Union, US and the UK, and range between $175 and $546 per month in terms of salary and labour costs, he stated.
A country-specific focus of the contact centre agents’ salaries shows Tunisia has the highest salary, with $546, followed by Kenya with $534, and $514 in Morocco. Ethiopia has the lowest at $175.
South Africa is number four on the list, with an average monthly salary of $465. At the mid-point are Egypt, Rwanda and Zimbabwe, ranging from $402 to $360 per month.
SA leads as the country with the highest contact centre manager monthly salary of $2 200, followed by Tunisia with $1 702, Kenya $1 616, and Namibia $1 444.
The report also highlights BPO and IT outsourcing as being at the forefront of Africa’s rapid growth rates, bolstered by improved economic governance, relative political stability, as well as focused efforts from African policymakers to support the sector.
Based on market projections, the report shows Africa’s total GBS offshoring market will reach $9.6 billion by 2023, from $7.8 billion in 2021.
Collectively, the domestic and international GBS markets across the continent generate about $15.1 billion in revenue, which is expected to rise to $19.8 billion in 2023.
According to the report, SA and Egypt are the two leading maturing markets.
While many industries have shed jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, the global business services/BPO sector managed to create job opportunities during this challenging period, and has been identified as key for future employment prospects.
Within the South African context, the BPO sector has witnessed heightened growth. It is also toutedas one of the green shoots that will steer the country’s economic reconstruction and recovery.
The sector is targeting 100 000 new jobs by 2023 and 500 000 by 2030. SA also claimed top spot as the most favoured offshore location for call centres worldwide, based on the 2021 Front Office BPO Omnibus Survey.
In terms of the estimations of the GBS/BPO workforce sizes in each of the key locations, Angus highlighted that SA and Egypt are neck-and-neck, with 261 082 and 240 000 employees, respectively.
He noted that SA’s GBS/BPO industry consists much more of domestic outsourcing workers at over 200 000, and around 43 000 are international servicing workers.
Meanwhile, Egypt is the other way round, with over 198 000 international servicing workers, and just over 42 000 domestic outsourcing workers, he added.
SA is said to be the continent’s largest GBS player by market share (domestic and international), valued at an estimated $4.7 billion.
“The country has a sizeable English-speaking workforce, with competencies across most outsourcing services, including digitally-enabled contact centre and customer experience lifecycle management services.
“Surveyed enterprise executives rated the country best for contact centre voice, back-office processing and customer administration service delivery,” states the report.
Egypt has the second-largest domestic and international GBS market share on the continent, valued at $4 billion (excluding IT services).
“The country offers a highly-skilled, multilingual, diverse talent pool, with competitive labour costs and the second-largest youth population in Africa (36.3 million citizens aged between 18-35 years). The native Arabic language also opens Egypt to the Arabic market of 300 million consumers.”
Turning to Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, it boasts a well-established ICT sector – the largest on the continent.
“This feature serves as an excellent foundation for developing the country’s GBS industry, which is already valued at an estimated $286.8 million and employing approximately 16 540 workers,” notes the report.
“Coupled with a focus on sector-specific skills and education, the country stands poised to take advantage of the largest population of English speakers in Africa and the highest number of youths aged between 18-35 years in Africa (53 million).”
The report pointed out that smaller nations are also capitalising on this increasing international demand.
Rwanda is an emerging GBS market, with a large population of English- and French-speakers able to service English and Francophone countries. “It offers reliable and advanced communications infrastructure with 95% LTE network coverage.”
Southern African nation Botswana is another emerging GBS location, with the country said to boast macro-economic stability, attractive investment incentives and a growing pool of educated, English-speaking workers.
Senegal has become a popular French alternative market for BPO services. Ghana has a scalable pool of English-speaking and computer-literate talent and a growing youth population. Zimbabwe has bold GBS development plans based on its highly-educated talent pool for niche services.
E-Business
Africa Tasked to Fast-track AI Skills Development

Africa has been urged to fast-track the development of Artificial intelligence (AI) skill to benefit from its economic value. AI could contribute $1.5 trillion to Africa’s economy by 2030 if the continent secures 10% of the global AI market, according to SAP, which sourced the statistic from online media.
However, a shortage of AI talent, with the need to retain cyber security and cloud skills, threatens to block opportunities to monetise growth.
This is part of a report released by SAP: ‘Africa’s AI Skills Readiness Revealed’, which reveals that African organisations are rushing to enhance their traditional IT skills base in the wake of accelerating adoption of AI.
The report adds that while 94% of organisations offer monthly AI training, none currently allocate more than 10% of their HR or IT budgets to skills development, a sharp decline from 2022.
Genevieve Koolen, HR director at SAP Africa, said: “There is a near-universal need for AI-related skills among African companies this year. Since traditional IT skills such as cloud and cyber security related competencies remain in high demand, companies now face the dual challenge of attracting and retaining traditional tech talent while also building greater AI competencies within their businesses. It is unsurprising then that most African organisations provide career development opportunities for employees with AI specialisations.”
The report reveals that all companies surveyed expect the demand for AI skills to increase in 2025. Nearly half said they expect a ‘significant’ increase.
Koolen added that while there is an urgent need for policymakers and education institutions to fast-track AI skills development initiatives among Africa’s swelling youth population, companies also face pressure to equip existing workers with future-ready skills.
“Thirty-eight percent of companies surveyed said reskilling of employees is a top skills-related challenge for them in 2025, and nearly half said the same of upskilling. The impact of these changes creates its own challenges, as evidenced by the two-thirds of companies that said helping employees understand why reskilling is necessary is a top priority.”
Research also showed that African organisations are alive to the possibilities presented by AI-related innovation, with companies citing perceived value in improved decision-making (64%), marketing capabilities (51%) and innovation (47%) enabled by AI.
However, poor access to AI-ready skills is already causing negative impacts among the same companies, including failed innovation initiatives, delays completing projects, greater pressure on teams and an inability to take on new client projects.
“Organisations are rising to this challenge by increasing the frequency of training offered to employees, with 94% saying they offer training at least monthly,” said Koolen.
However, the latest data indicates a drop in the allocated budget for skills development.
In a previous survey conducted in 2022, a quarter of organisations said they spend more than 15% of their HR or IT budgets on skills development and training. This year, not a single organisation that formed part of the research spent more than 10%.
SAP lists several measures that companies can implement to ensure they cultivate the correct skills mix:
Be prepared: With universal demand for tech and AI-related skills and an ongoing skills scarcity, African organisations must prepare for a shortfall in critical AI-related skills this year.
“The moment calls for a pragmatic approach that combines longer-term skills development – including reskilling and upskilling – with short-term measures that alleviate some of the immediate pressures and creates space for more robust skills development initiatives. Organisations also need to take care to support employees through this uncertain period, for example, by using human capital management technologies that help HR teams identify concerns.”
Prioritise training: Koolen said it is surprising that budget allocations for training and skills development appear to be shrinking. “Too many digital transformation and innovation initiatives fail to deliver the expected business value due to a lack of appropriate skills.
“In light of the rapid pace of technological advancement, any organisation that fails to invest in skills will likely find they are unprepared and unable to leverage new innovations. In time, this will erode their competitiveness and lead to significant impacts to the bottom line.”
Instead, organisations should place skills development at the core of their business strategies to ensure a steady stream of work-ready talent and invest sufficient budget to guarantee high-quality outcomes for employees and the business.
Partner well: While Africa has the fastest-growing youth population of any continent, there are still significant systemic challenges with equipping youth with adequate work-ready skills.
“Africa’s ability to reap the benefits of AI-related innovation rests on broader public-private sector efforts at cultivating the correct skills mix,” said Koolen. “Partnering with educational institutions and other industry skills development initiatives can accelerate the rate at which skills become available to companies.”
She added that technology vendors can also play a valuable role. “Large technology companies often have large global workforces and strong employer brands, allowing them to attract top talent. Partnering with tech venters can augment organisations’ skills base and provide valuable support to AI-led initiatives.”
E-Business
Google Announces $37m Funding in Africa

Google has outlined a wave of AI support across Africa, representing $37 million in cumulative funding — including previously committed but unannounced funding — to research, talent development, and infrastructure.
The funding package includes funding and partnerships that aim to strengthen AI research, support African languages, improve food systems, expand digital skills, and build research capacity.
The AI Collaborative for Food Security, a multi-partner initiative launched with $25 million in funding from Google.org will bring together researchers, and nonprofit organizations to co-develop AI tools for early hunger forecasting, crop resilience, and tailored guidance for smallholder farmers.
The goal is to help make food systems across Africa more adaptive, equitable, and resilient in the face of increasing climate and economic shocks.
Google also announced $3 million in funding to the Masakhane Research Foundation, the open research collective advancing AI tools in over 40 African languages.
The funding will support the development of high-quality datasets, machine translation models, and speech tools that make digital content more accessible to millions of Africans in their native languages.
To further empower innovation, Google is launching a catalytic funding initiative to support AI-driven startups tackling real-world challenges.
This platform will combine philanthropic capital, venture investment, and Google’s technical expertise to help more than 100 early-stage ventures scale AI-based solutions in agriculture, healthcare, education, and other vital sectors.
Startups will also receive mentorship, access to tools, and technical guidance to support responsible development.
Africa’s AI talent is growing rapidly, but the infrastructure to support it must grow in tandem.
That’s why a cornerstone of this announcement is the launch of the AI Community Center in Accra — a first-of-its-kind space for AI learning, experimentation, and collaboration in Africa.
The Center will host training sessions, community events, and workshops focused on responsible AI development. Its programming will span four pillars: AI literacy, community technology, social impact, and arts and culture — providing a platform for a diverse ecosystem of developers, students, and creators to engage with AI in ways that are grounded in African priorities.
To help meet the rising demand for AI and digital skills, Google is rolling out 100,000 Google Career Certificate scholarships for students in higher learning institutions across Ghana.
These fully funded, self-paced programs will focus on AI Essentials, Prompting Essentials, and other high-growth fields like IT Support, Data Analytics, and Cybersecurity — enabling more learners to access job-ready training and build careers in AI and the digital economy.
Beyond Ghana, Google.org is committing an additional $7 million to support AI education across Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Ghana.
The funding will support academic institutions and nonprofits building localized AI curricula, online safety training, and cybersecurity programs.
Additionally, two new $1 million grants from Google.org aim to bolster AI research capacity across the continent.
One grant goes to the African Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AfriDSAI) at the University of Pretoria to support applied AI research and training.
The other supports the Wits Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery (MIND) Institute in South Africa, which will fund MSc and PhD students to conduct foundational AI research and help shape Africa’s role in the global AI landscape.
Speaking about the announcements, James Manyika, senior vice president for Research, Labs, and Technology & Society at Google, said: “Africa is home to some of the most important and inspiring work in AI today. We are committed to supporting the next wave of innovation through long-term investment, local partnerships, and platforms that help researchers and entrepreneurs build solutions that matter.”
Yossi Matias, vice president of Engineering and Research at Google, added: “This new wave of support reflects our belief in the talent, creativity, and ingenuity across the continent. By building with local communities and institutions, we’re supporting solutions that are rooted in Africa’s realities and built for global impact.”
E-Business
How High the Risk of a Cyber Incident in Your Organisation

One of the core reasons why businesses remain vulnerable to cyberthreats is that they underestimate their risk or overestimate the strength of their existing defences.
According to a recent Kaspersky survey entitled “Cybersecurity in the workplace: Employee knowledge and behaviour”, 52,1% of professionals surveyed in the Middle East, Turkiye and Africa (META) region, whose work requires the use of computers, asses the risk of a cybersecurity incident happening to their company as quite possible.
Commenting on the probable consequences of a cybersecurity incident, 55,6% of employees surveyed supposed that it might seriously affect the company. This understanding of risks comes not only from general cybersecurity awareness, but also from knowledge about cyber incidents in their organisations: 31,8% of respondents acknowledged such incidents happened in the past 12-months, while an additional 26,2% said they have heard about these incidents from colleagues.
Organisations nowadays face a variety of cyberthreats ranging from phishing and business email compromise to ransomware and advanced persistent threats.
In a lot of these attacks, the entry point into the organisation’s network is via a human mistake, and it is for that reason attackers actively employ social engineering techniques and AI tools to make their efforts more effective.
The survey shows that the majority of respondents understand that cybersecurity is an issue that should be considered by the IT department, while 23,9% also mentioned top level executives and 15,9% cited legal and financial employees as core groups within the business who should keep cybersecurity issues in mind. Only 30,6% of employees surveyed viewed cybersecurity as an issue that should be considered by all employees across the entire business.
“In today’s digital landscape, cybersecurity is a collective responsibility that extends beyond the IT department. Every employee should remain vigilant against evolving threats.
“Regular cybersecurity training, use of relevant IT solutions, well-defined policies and an incident response plan are essential pillars of organisational cyber resilience. When every team member is informed and prepared, the organisation stands stronger against cyber threats,” says Brandon Muller, Technical Expert for the MEA region at Kaspersky.
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