"BPO Has Potential Of Creating Jobs For Youths" - PS Amina Zawedde

Yesterday afternoon, Col Edith Nakadama hosted a strategic meeting on Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), emphasizing its potential to create jobs for Uganda’s youth and establish the country as a global service hub.

During the event, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of ICT & National Guidance, Dr. Amina zawedde revealed that H.E, President Kaguta Museveni is very passionate about BPO and he believes that if Uganda leverages technology, the country will be able to create employment opportunities for the youths. 

“We have that policy in place and it has recommendations on how to make BPOs thrive. For any business to thrive, we must have the right policies and an enabling environment,”she said.

Thr NITA Uganda Executive director, Dr. Hatwib Mugasa thanked Col. Nakalema for identifying the BPO gap which when well covered, can benefit Ugandans through creation of jobs. “BPO has a multiplier effect when it comes to creating jobs,” he added. 

Prof. William Bazeyo, the Chairperson of BPO Council asked the stakeholders to create awareness about BPO in order to ensure that citizens get to know what it means and how the country benefits. 

“It's not only for call centres or ICT. No! It's something that we practice in our homes everyday. We have maids at home, gardeners and some hire people to wash your cars,” he said. 

During the presentation, the Chairperson BPO Uganda association and General Manager Exquisite Uganda, Mr. Steven Kwesiga advocated for the government to set up a deliberate policy to support outsourcing. 

“We should focus on outsourcing and generate demand locally so that we can capture all these people in the system. The outsourcing beat is extremely important,” he said. 

The meeting was also attended by the Private Secretary to H.E the President Investment matters, Ms. Hiromi Abe, the former Attorney General, Hon. Ruhindi Fredrick, the Director General Ibf Uganda Rajes Kumar, the Founder Yako Bank and ICT Centre, Mr. Rajnish Jain among other stakeholders.

Read More About BPO:

Through the Ministry of ICT & NG, the Government has adopted an ICT-led socio- economic policy for accelerated development with a focus on ICT entrepreneurship development, rejuvenation of the private sector, and wealth creation in the National Development Plan III and the NRM Manifesto 2021-2026.

In a bid to achieve this strategic objective, focus has been placed on revamping Business Process Outsourcing Services by addressing the identified challenges to the growth of the industry within the country. The newly formed BPO & Innovation Council will work closely with Ministry of ICT & NG and BPO/ITES Companies to supervise the implementation of the proposed BPO strategy and ensure the involvement of every sector to prescribe and implement regulatory frameworks/reforms and projects relevant to the growth of the ITES/BPO industry.

To achieve these, the BPO Companies in Uganda are required to register themselves with the Council to build an up to date database of all active BPO/ITES Companies in Uganda as beneficiaries of the initiative of the Ministry of ICT & NG.