Call Centres & Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)

Call centres are moving to KwaZulu-Natal – and growing.

KwaZulu-Natal is deliberately positioning itself as a destination for call centres and business-process outsourcing. With the support of national government, which has also identified the sector as a potential job creator, and several organisations within the province, the KwaZulu-Natal chapter of Business Process enabling South Africa (BPeSA) is actively championing the expansion of existing call centres and the creation of new ones.

Trade & Investment KwaZulu-Natal (TIKZN) reports that 15 000 direct jobs have been created nationally in the sector with a further 45 000 indirect jobs established. The majority of the KwaZulu-Natal’s 61 call centres are located in Durban. Two 700-seater operations cater exclusively to major clients Nedcor and MTN. Financial services are the focus of major operator Direct Channel Holdings while BizWorks, which operates in the CBD, has a 230-seat operation concentrating on telesales, Internet and telecommunications. Daly Contact Centre Solutions intends enlarging its Mount Edgecombe facility from 150 seats to 500 seats.

A major investment by Unlimited World, unveiled in May 2009, looks set to spread call-centre opportunities to the rest of the province, too. The deal, facilitated by TIKZN, will create 443 jobs in the province. Towns that will benefit from call-centre seats are Empangeni, Estcourt, Howick, Northdale, Ladysmith, Richards Bay, Dundee, Newcastle, Pietermaritzburg and Port Shepstone.

TIKZN points out that the coastal province has very low attrition rates among its call-centre staff complement and lists a number of organisations that are actively supporting new business development: KZN Growth Fund, Ithala Development Finance Corporation, Durban Investment Promotion Agency and eThekwini Municipality.

More than R1-million has been generated in a single year by the 15 disabled call-centre operators working for the eThekwini Municpality Traffic Fines Call Centre. Proving the point about low attrition rates, this centre lost no members of staff in a year and achieved excellent success rates in what is essentially a debt-collection operation.

The national Department of Trade and Industry has identified 22 municipalities nationwide, including in KwaZulu-Natal, which are particularly well suited to hosting call centres. The department believes that factors working in South Africa’s favour are its good regulatory framework and infrastructure and the country’s sophistication in the fields of financial services, insurance and telecommunications, normally very popular sectors for call centres.














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