By Modupe Gbadeyanka
South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has created 30,000 jobs through its Business Process Services (BPS) Incentive Scheme since the scheme’s inception in 2011.
This was said by the department’s Chief Operating Officer for Incentives Administration, Ms Susan Mangole.
Ms Mangole was speaking during the visit of Members of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry to one of the beneficiaries of the scheme, Conduent which is based in Sandton. The MPs are on a two-day oversight visit to companies that have received funding from the dti.
“The objective of the BPS scheme is to create employment opportunities particularly for the young people of South Africa through servicing offshore activities. To achieve this objective, we have created more than 30 000 jobs by supporting forty-three companies through BPS at a cost of almost R1 billion. About 86% of the jobs are for the youth,” said Mangole.
She added that the scheme was also aimed at contributing to the country’s export revenue from offshoring services.
Mangole also said the business process services industry, which has been identified by government through the Industrial Policy Action Plan as one of the country’s key job drivers, has been growing at an average of 26% annually since 2011.
Internationally, South Africa is recognised as a leading offshore destination for business process services with its highly competitive costs, deep domain skills, English-speaking talent and world-class infrastructure. In November last year, SA won the Offshoring Destination of the Year Award from the Global Sourcing Association in London.
Addressing the MPs at the company premises, Conduent’s Senior General Manager, Mr Jim Beatie said his company was grateful for the support provided by the dti. Conduent, one of the largest business process services companies in the world, was funded by the dti for more than R10 million in a project that will create 1 600 jobs over a five-year period.
The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, Ms Joan Fubbs, said the purpose of the site visit to the dti-funded companies was to assess how the funds that the department disburses are making an impact.
“We would like to get first-hand information from the beneficiaries themselves on how the incentives are applied, whether they achieve their objectives, as well as the challenges companies could be experiencing,” said Fubbs.
Adedapo Adesanya