Nelson Mandela Bay emerges as SA’s next BPO hub
NELSON MANDELA BAY, SOUTH AFRICA — Nelson Mandela Bay is positioning itself as South Africa’s next business process outsourcing destination, with the Eastern Cape city recording 1,612 new global business services jobs in 2025, up from 251 the prior year, as national sector employment reached its highest annual total since 2018.
Van Huyssteen, writing in Moneyweb, cited South Africa’s fifth-place ranking in the Ataraxis 2026 Global Outsourcing Talent Index and placement in the top 10 of the Global AI Outsourcing Readiness Index as evidence of the country’s growing international recognition as an outsourcing destination.
South Africa logs record GBS jobs and $422M in export revenue
South Africa’s global business services sector generated export revenue of US$422 million in 2025, growing from US$279 million in 2020, as the country consolidated its position among the most competitive English-language outsourcing markets in the world.
The Business Process Enabling South Africa (BPESA) association reported 26,346 new business process outsourcing (BPO) jobs nationally in 2025, the highest annual total since 2018, with approximately 90% going to young workers and roughly 30% to individuals from households previously dependent on social grants.
BPESA’s decade-long count stands at 180,000 jobs created, with a national target of 500,000 by 2030.
Van Huyssteen identified Nelson Mandela Bay’s competitive advantages over established South African metros as including affordable commercial property, lower traffic congestion relative to Johannesburg and Cape Town, access to quality schools and tertiary institutions, and proximity to the Coega Special Economic Zone’s purpose-built BPO park.
Coega SEZ and workforce quality anchor NMB’s BPO case
The Coega SEZ BPO Park provides ready-to-occupy infrastructure for incoming operators, an advantage that reduces entry costs and fit-out timelines compared to building on greenfield sites in established metro markets.
Van Huyssteen identified public transport, road, rail, and air connectivity as constraints the city must resolve to convert strong operator interest into sustained delivery center commitments.
South Africa’s placement in the top 10 globally for artificial intelligence (AI)-ready outsourcing reflects a sector pitch that has moved beyond labor cost arbitrage toward talent capability and digital infrastructure readiness.
For buyers evaluating top BPO companies in Africa, Nelson Mandela Bay’s combination of a purpose-built SEZ campus, government economic zone incentives, and a sixfold Eastern Cape job creation jump positions it as a credible lower-cost alternative to Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban.
The city’s approximately 300 days of annual sunshine and comparatively lower cost of living add workforce retention upside that van Huyssteen cited as underappreciated in international operator assessments.
BPESA’s national target of 500,000 jobs by 2030 means that early operator commitments to the city will coincide with a coordinated national push to grow BPO employment across South Africa’s secondary cities.
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Disclosure: Outsource Accelerator uses AI tools in the backend of its editorial workflow. Every article is reviewed and verified by a human editor before publication.
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