Business process outsourcing and call centre operators will enjoy a 20 per cent saving on their operational costs — thanks to a government subsidy on bandwidth.
According to the Kenya ICT board executive officer, Paul Kukubo, the need to subsidise the bandwidth costs is mainly to make the country competitive in the sector. While most countries pay $300 per megabyte per month, Kenya operators are paying ten times more making it hard for the operators to compete globally.
“Increasing Kenya’s competitiveness in the global BPO sphere is vital for our country’s economic growth performance. This bandwidth support will help us build a competitive BPO industry and thus put Kenya on the global outsourcing map. This will go along way in advancing the performance of BPO operators in Kenya, through reducing the costs,” said Mr Kukubo.
The government through the Kenya ICT board has availed $7 million which will be used to subsidise the prices of the satellite bandwidth capacity. The grant is part of the $ 114.4 million credit received from the International Development Association (IDA) towards the cost of Transparency and Communication Infrastructure Project (TCIP).
Business Daily Africa
