Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) a game-changer for Cape Town

STATEMENT BY THE CITY’S MAYORAL COMMITTEE MEMBER FOR ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES AND ASSET MANAGEMENT, ALDERMAN JAMES VOS.

The burgeoning BPO sector lives up to being a game-changer for job creation in Cape Town. The powerful partnership between the City and our strategic business partner, BPeSA WC, has generated investment totalling R4,7 billion over the last five years.

The sector currently employs almost 60 000 individuals in the metro. These impressive achievements are set to be improved as the Boomerang Call Centre doubles their workforce with the aim of employing 1 000 individuals by the end of 2020.

Last week, the Executive Mayor, Alderman Dan Plato and I had the pleasure of opening an extension of the Boomerang Call Centre, which will see them doubling their current employment opportunities from 200 to 400.

The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector, which involves the provision of contact centre and telephonic customer services, is truly living up to the projections of being a key growth sector. Just last year the sector created nearly 6 000 jobs in our city.

There is great demand for these services by both local and international businesses. Therefore, we will continue working with our partners and industry to support this sector and help to establish many more call centres in all parts of the city.

For Cape Town to compete globally and achieve inclusive socio-economic growth, we must continue to invest in skills and training for the sectors that are poised for substantial growth, instead of training for the sake of training.

In pursuit of this objective, I recently announced the establishment of the Cape Skills and Employment Accelerator Project; a project I am very proud of. This project is the first of its kind in the country because the City of Cape Town will be the first municipality to receive funds from this national government entity.

With funding from the National Skills fund as well as the City, this initiative will offer roughly 3 300 learners the opportunity for training and workplace experience in the BPO and Clothing and Textile sectors.

Through this new Cape Skills and Employment Accelerator Project, together with our Strategic Business Partners, I will make sure that key sectors have the skills pipelines they need to drive demand for their products and ultimately create employment opportunities for our residents.