ITU Telecom Africa Conference Debates Africa’s Potential as an Outsourcing Location

Africa is receiving increasing attention as a potential outsourcing location. The African success stories in outsourcing are few and far between, ironically in countries located at the opposite ends of the continent. However, for African countries across the continent to taste success as outsourcing locations, their ICT infrastructure must meet the stringent requirements laid down by enterprises that own the processes they are looking to put in the care of a third party. ICT parks—technology parks that bring together the skills and resources required to develop a country’s ICT industry—are integral to this infrastructure. With more African countries voicing their desire to capture the outsourcing opportunity, a debate on the future of Africa’s ICT parks at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecom Africa Conference in Cairo was timely if nothing else.