According to the National Outsourcing Strategy (NOS 2023-2027) provided by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the federal government plans to create about 5 million new job opportunities by 2027 through outsourcing. The NOS’s stated objective is to increase its value offshore to Nigeria’s GDP so that it becomes one of the country’s primary economic drivers. It explains further that accomplishing this objective will help the country realize its vision of a thriving, diverse Economy that benefits everyone.
In addition to its goal of creating new jobs, NITDA has stated that the strategy is projected to enhance its contribution to the country’s GDP by 25% by 2027. In the same time frame, the government aims to boost its IT-enabled service platforms by 70% while acquiring 30% of the global outsourcing market. They believe in Nigeria’s enormous potential. They identified the country’s young population as a resource that will be leveraged to reach these goals, noting that Nigeria has the youngest average age in Africa at 19.
NCC licensed 12 call centres and 5 call directories service companies.
It further affirmed that the Nigerian Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry has expanded over the past few years, with Call Centre services operators serving an increasing number of onshore and offshore customers. As of the end of the year 2019, the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) has granted licences to 12 businesses that operate call centres and 5 businesses that operate call directories. The banking sector, the telecom industry, and the government all utilize the services of these locally based call centre operators.
BPO is widely utilized in the local telecommunications sector. Several mobile network providers get servicing firms overseeing their base stations and transmission sites. In 2014 Etisalat, a major telecom operator, delegated most of its technical administration to Huawei, a Chinese telecom corporation. Numerous local ICT Infrastructure and cloud service providers provide such services for the management and administration of ICT assets. According to NITDA, the government plans to outsource non-essential services as part of the overall strategy.
Skilled Nigerians need to signup on the agency’s outsourcing platforms.
Creating an environment conducive to greater investments and the distribution of technology and infrastructure that will speed the development of the country’s human capital for outsourcing would be one of the primary fundamental pillars of the strategy that will be put into action. Platformization of the country’s potential for outsourcing will receive investments in the form of capital expenditures, and this will include the provision of fundamental supporting infrastructure such as energy, bandwidth, and data centres.
More so, the agency also explained that the system would include user-friendly front-end web platforms enabling Nigerians to post their skill sets and look for work, apply for jobs, and get paid for their efforts. In addition, it was stated that the country would make use of the web-based global outsourcing platforms that are already in place in order to recruit as many qualified Nigerians as possible. It stated this would be possible by spreading the word about the platforms and encouraging skilled Nigerians to sign up for it.
Economic and social challenges of the country will be tackled.
Through the successful implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy and the high-capacity Broadband network, the country stands to increase the quality of life of its citizens by expanding the IT Enabled services industry to serve the Public and Private sectors, both on and offshore. The rapid expansion of service can remedy several of the country’s economic and social challenges; these include the need for increased economic output, new employment opportunities, a broader Tax base, enhanced technology transfer, and more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows.
