JULY 13, 2015
PRESENTATION - From left, Executive Director, Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu; MD/CEO, Zenith Bank, Mr. Peter Amangbo; Deputy British High Commissioner, Mr. Ray Kyles and; Executive Director, Zenith Bank, Mr. Sola Oladipo, at the formal presentation of ISO Awards to the bank by the British Standards Institution in Lagos.
Nigeria lags in global outsourcing industry •Contributes just $2bn of $500bn BY PRINCEWILL EKWUJURU
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igeria is lagging behind in the global outsourcing industry, contributing only $2 billion out of the $500 billion the industry generates worldwide annually. Investigation showed that globally, India is leading the pack followed by China, Malaysia, Thailand and Brazil without the presence of any African country. Other countries on the top 10 list C M Y K
include Indonesia, Bulgaria, Philippines, Chile and Japan. Some of the operators in the industry who spoke to Financial Vanguard, said despite the potential of outsourcing in terms of revenue generation and job creation, Nigeria is lagging behind among the comity of nation. The Association of Outsourcing Professionals of Nigeria, AOPN president, Dr. Austin Nweze, said that outsourcing holds the key to job creation. He noted that in 2020 it is expected that outsourcing will
create a minimum of 38 million jobs globally, while the online industry
Online outsourcing alone can create about 30 million jobs
will be moving from $15 billion to $25 billion, creating 30 million jobs. Nweze said also that of the $25 billion, Nigeria is expected to contribute at least 20 percent because of her increased number of youths, but regretted that Nigeria is lagging behind in this process. “We have $25 billion for online outsourcing alone, at the last count the industry as a whole was close to $500billion, presently US is outsourcing to India and China and has be able to recover from the economic downturn, and US is becoming an outsourcing hub,” Nweze stated. He said the job of the Association is advocacy - to sell the importance of outsourcing so that people would understand outsourcing more. “That is why we are advocating that government should understand outsourcing and accord it its place in the development and creation of jobs. Outsourcing can solve their problem in job creation,” he noted. According to him, “Online outsourcing alone can create about 30 million jobs. So what the Association is trying to do is to know the contribution of outsourcing specifically. So now we have to know the amount it is contributing to the economy. We are going to carry out a study.” Nweke who said that Nigeria is yet to come to terms with the reality of outsourcing, noted that Nigeria is still playing in the peripheral of the outsourcing business. “Here (Nigeria) we started from the supply side, we have not started the domestic demand side, we are servicing the outsiders, the thing is that Nigerian companies have not be able to embrace outsourcing because they don’t know the value. “If they know the value of the thing you want, you have to invest and protect that thing. So we are saying that outsourcing is the key to economic growth, it is the key to job creation, it is the key to creating wealth, for individuals and for the nation.” “And that is why we are saying if you understand the value of
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