Nigeria launches national outsourcing strategy
ABUJA, NIGERIA — The Nigerian government recently launched its National Outsourcing Strategy (NOS), which contains the country’s plans to position itself as a leading outsourcing destination globally.
Released by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), one of NOS’ targets is to create around five million outsourcing jobs in the country by 2027 to address its high youth unemployment rate.
Aside from job creation, the federal government is looking to increase the contribution of outsourcing to the country’s GDP by 25% by 2027.
The country aims to acquire 30% of the global outsourcing industry by the same year and increase its IT-enabled outsourcing platforms by 70%.
NITDA said these targets are possible, especially with Nigeria’s largely youthful population — with a median age of 19 — and “high-capacity first-mile broadband infrastructure.”
“The rapid growth of the IT-enabled Outsourcing services sector will address various socio-economic challenges the country [faces]. These include the need to grow its economy, create jobs, expand the tax base, improve technology transfer, and attract foreign direct investment,” the agency added.
NITDA also noted that one of the NOS’ core pillars would be to create an enabling environment for investors and technological developments.
The country is also looking to leverage its existing web-based global outsourcing platforms to onboard as many skilled Nigerians as possible.
Nigeria’s Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry has grown in the last couple of years and is now dominated by call center operators providing services to both onshore and offshore clients.
