Do Nigerians know that India generates up to $50bn a year through business process outsourcing (BPO) and as a nation of 200m we have no option but to follow suit 

Ayo Akinfe 

[1] You simply have to give it to India for leveraging on their English-speaking population and making the best out of business process outsourcing (BPO). Virtually every American and British blue chip company has an Indian call centre 

[2] As far back as 2012, around 2.8m Indians were working in the BPO sector and the number just keeps rising 

[3] We now know that many Western multinationals outsource their manufacturing to China and their customer care/call centres to India. It is time for Nigeria to get in on the act my people 

[4] Analysts believe that India remains a vital destination for outsourcing and expect the country’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by between 8% and 10% a year for the next decade. BPO is a huge driver of Indian economic growth 

[5] American Express, Pepsi, Vodaphone, Mastercard, EE, General Electric, Bosch, etc are all the kind of companies with Indian call centres 

[6] As a result of this success, India has seen a whole industry emerge with specialist BPO companies sling up. This sector is now worth billions 

[7] India prides itself on being a high-ranking English proficiency country but Nigerian English is more coherent then theirs as our accents are not as thick. In 2012 for instance, we were ranked 29 while India was ranked 48 when it came to English proficiency 

[8] Now, the global BPO market is estimated to be worth $250bn. Surely, Nigeria has got to corner at least $30bn of this. Is there any team working on this at the moment 

[9] With a population of 1.4bn, India has little difficulty in providing staff. This is an advantage Nigeria also enjoys and we need to leverage on it big time 

[10] With Covid-19, many conglomerates have seen the danger in planting all their eggs in one basket. Nigeria needs to make the case that focusing solely on Asia is a recipe for economic disaster. Nigeria is open for business!