Comments on: Outsourcing to India

By: sammy

sammy — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 17:44:26 +0000

i think Kenyan workers are greedy and lazy that is why they,re almost 5 times more expensive than china .
you spent on average 300/= to pay someone kwa kazi ya mkono kama kujimba holes ya fence. you calculate all the costs of wire mesh , nails and posts plus labour costs. you will realise unskilled labour will be two times the cost of materials bought! Its still cheap to import ready to fix item from abroad than use local labour.

By: job ballard

job ballard — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 08:19:27 +0000

when you speak the truth you speak the truth… thanks for the article.

By: Kelvin

Kelvin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:35:51 +0000

One beauty in it all is that, through smart outsourcing, small ambitious local companies can compete with the local giants. Even maybe outdo them

By: Kelvin

Kelvin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:34:15 +0000

Well, I agree with you almost fully. We have immense capacity and opportunity. But will we ever take full advantage of it all? I think not. By the time we have our house in order, it will be too late.

Also, the fact that businesses in Kenya are starting to outsource offshore means that perhaps there are places better suited to be outsourcing havens.

By: Kelvin

Kelvin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:31:07 +0000

Surely not all Kenyans, ama?

By: SQLGuy

SQLGuy — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:29:58 +0000

I have enjoyed this article and have to say you were spot on, on most of the points but i do not agree with you on some especially when it comes to outsourcing of services.
Actually BPO in Kenya is bigger than most people think and i should know as i work for such a company. Examples of international companies outsourcing in Kenya
http://www.isys.dk/home_uk.asp
http://www.ascribe.com/cgi-bin/ascribe/index.html

You will realise most outsourced companies are of an ICT nature. The reason Kenya might have a slight advantage over India is mainly because we are more effective communicators (I disagree with Ken who mentions that Kenyans have very thick accents, infact Kenyans’ clarity of communication makes them stand out from other Africans) and also time difference between us and the West. Take UK for instance, the Outsourcing company will require the outsourced resource available during normal working hours to perhaps offer support services. Seeing as they are only 3 hours behind us, this doesn’t present logistical challenges.
So why can’t we hold a candle to India;
1) They got into the BPO business much earlier than we did
2) They are ridicuously many more in terms of numbers meaning the number of people looking for jobs online will be greater.
3) Lack of affordable internet connectivety in Kenya. Many unemployed youth would love to try their hand in rendering their services to companies beyond our borders but how do you that when a modem costs KSH 2,000 and a minimal 40MB bundle costs you KSH 250?

That’s my 5 cents on the matter

By: Ken Thumbi

Ken Thumbi — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 09:53:38 +0000

Thanks for this good article.
There are so many questions we need to ask ourselves on outsourcing in this global economy. But the main question I keep coming back to is “what gives us an advantage over the likes of Egypt, India or even Philippines?” let us not even imagine we (Kenyans) do not have an accent, from my experience, we generally have a distinct thick accent, which is an argument many like to put across. My main interest is how can an ambitious local company compete with the outsourcing giants of the world? Imo, service, cost, service cost, service cost. period. Do we have that edge? I leave it to other readers to post their comments.

By: Paul Kevin

Paul Kevin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:16:27 +0000

I think Kenyans are lazy and want ot be paid big for small work