Could East Africa Become An Outsourcing Hub?

[X-PASTER]

The arrival of broadband in Tanzania presents dazzling business possibilities.
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By Eamon Kircher-Allen — Special to GlobalPost
Published: August 17, 2009 07:36 ET
Updated: August 18, 2009 11:18 ET


DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania

Ramadhan Mubarak shook his head as he gestured to his six forlorn PCs.

“I believe that many people want to use the internet,” he said. “But most Tanzanians are poor, so they can’t manage the cost.”

Mubarak owns two of the handful of internet cafes in downtown Dar es Salaam, and he can barely cover his overhead of $1,500 a month. Like many people here, he’s hoping that will soon change: East Africa’s new fiber-optic cable has been laid across the Indian Ocean and made landfall here on July 23. When it goes into use in late August, it is likely to dramatically reduce costs and improve connectivity speed.

The cable, which is a two-year, $650 million project of the private venture Seacom, connects East and Southern Africa to India and Europe and will end the dependence of Tanzania’s internet on satellites. Even accounting for exaggeration — some boosters have promised it will improve education and healthcare and curb corruption — pretty much everyone who uses the internet here agrees that fiber-optic connectivity is nothing short of a revolution.

“I think you'll see a wave of creativity and new business opportunities as more and more Africans come online by the millions,” wrote Jon Gosier, a founder of the Uganda-based

software development firm Appfrica in an email message. East Africa could become an outsourcing hub, said Gosier, who maintains a blog on African tech innovation. “I think in 5 years or so we'll be where places like India and Singapore are now.”

At Dar es Salaam’s iStore — the city’s Mac vendor — employees were optimistic that fast Internet would make their high-end machines attractive to more businesses and home users.

“The fiber cable’s going to work,” said Kishan Vadher, a salesperson. “Especially because of the way we are used to the internet.”

What Tanzanians web surfers “are used to” is fickle and crushingly slow browsing. The internet is also astronomically expensive. Businesses signing up for a connection of one-megabyte-per-second (MBps) with BensonOnline (BOL), a Tanzanian ISP that offers unlimited data transfer, pay $4,800 a month. In contrast, in the United States consumers can pay less than $100 a month for that kind of bandwidth.

Even “normal” BOL subscribers — who get 256 kilobyte-per-second connections — pay $1,500 per month for their subscriptions. When small businesses split the bandwidth between several computers, basic internet activities can be excruciating. Read more


GP

 

[Kimweri]

NOT in many years,EAST AFRICANS lack basic necessities for outsourcing,we copy everything,we have zero creativity,we have an aging educations system,we haven't a national vision,we are a headless chicken.

kwa major outsourcing country need kujipanga.huo umeme kuwa solved may be it may take another 5 to ten years,depends what BUM we have at the state house,then comes a problem of proper syllabus to support innovation,as well as economic stance.it will take 20 years the least to reach half of what INDIA does today.

 

[LazyDog]

NOT in many years,EAST AFRICANS lack basic necessities for,we copy everything,we have zero creativity,we have an aging educations system,we haven't a national vision,we are a headless chicken.

kwa major outsourcing country need kujipanga.huo umeme kuwa solved may be it may take another 5 to ten years,depends what BUM we have at the state house,then comes a problem of proper syllabus to support innovation,as well as economic stance.it will take 20 years the least to reach half of what INDIA does today.

Kimweri unazungumzia EA au Tanzania?

 

[Ndahani]

Pamoja na matatizo yaliyopo, kama tutaamua kuyapatia ufumbuzi, outsourcing could be one of the areas with alot of values in the telecommunication industry. hatujaamua tu. Tunaweza kufanya kazi za kawaida kama typing, mpaka kazi za utaalamu kama uchoraji wa michoro ya machine na majengo kwa makampuni mbalimbali yaliyopo nje. Ili tuweze hayo lazima tujipange na kujifunza ubora gani wateja wa outsourcing wanautaka.Lakini naamini hili linawezekana kabisa

 

[Kimweri]

​

Kimweri unazungumzia EA au Tanzania?

i meant EA, and probably Africa at large,education systems zetu needs revamping.

Outsourcing is a very complicated industry.lack of just one thing can make outsourcing very unfavorable.

ask yourself why Taiwan,china,Korea and Japan are not the world leaders in Outsourcing regardless of their superior Technical abilities,and their superior IT base.

kwa east africa na TZ bado sana tuache kuota,hata umeme hatuna tunategemea DELL walete DATACENTER,dow we have any IDEA how much power a single world class data center needs?

 

[LazyDog]

i meant EA, and probably Africa at large,education systems zetu needs revamping.

Outsourcing is a very complicated industry.lack of just one thing can make outsourcing very unfavorable.

ask yourself why Taiwan,china,Korea and Japan are not the world leaders in Outsourcing regardless of their superior Technical abilities,and their superior IT base.

kwa east africa na TZ bado sana tuache kuota,hata umeme hatuna tunategemea DELL walete DATACENTER,dow we have any IDEA how much power a single world class data center needs?

World leaders can't be in outsourcing business maana wao ndiyo wanaotoa hizo kazi. Wafilipino wanafanya kazi za wajapani na wamarekani, it is not the other way round.

[URL="https://www.jamiiforums.com/habari-hoja-mchanganyiko/19932-fast-internet-is-coming-are-we-ready.html"]"Call Center Jobs Drifting Overseas".[/URL]

 

[Kimweri]

​

World leaders can't be in outsourcing business maana wao ndiyo wanaotoa hizo kazi. Wafilipino wanafanya kazi za wajapani na wamarekani, it is not the other way round.

[URL="https://www.jamiiforums.com/habari-hoja-mchanganyiko/19932-fast-internet-is-coming-are-we-ready.html"]"Call Center Jobs Drifting Overseas".[/URL]

nip tuk!

kama taiwan nao ni world leaders basi hata india nao ni world leaders!japan never took the outsourcing path because of language barrier,china never took the option because of high population as well as china's ambition to have their own industries.
Plus no object will pass into china without being copied,they have no intention of doing kazi za kikarani.
wako interested with transferring technology from the west,sio kuhodhi makarani.

 

[Kimweri]

Pamoja na matatizo yaliyopo, kama tutaamua kuyapatia ufumbuzi, outsourcing could be one of the areas with alot of values in the telecommunication industry. hatujaamua tu. Tunaweza kufanya kazi za kawaida kama typing, mpaka kazi za utaalamu kama uchoraji wa michoro ya machine na majengo kwa makampuni mbalimbali yaliyopo nje. Ili tuweze hayo lazima tujipange na kujifunza ubora gani wateja wa outsourcing wanautaka.Lakini naamini hili linawezekana kabisa

imagine intel looking for architectural drawings of their next 30nm processor from Tanzania!dont thing it will ever happen.kazi za outsourcing sio za aina hii jamani.

in the west people design,they send the drawings to the "east" for air polluting industries to make prototypes.

they could offshore part of their operations to Some countries with favorable conditions of which we have none.

Drawings comes from research labs from R&D departments of the worlds best companies.and so far that is the only edge left that the west has over the east.leo hii mnasema wachukue drawings tanzania.au mnaongelea drawings gani?zile za adobe CS4?ramani za nyumba?au drawings gani?

 

[LazyDog]

imagine intel looking for architectural drawings of their next 30nm processor from Tanzania!dont thing it will ever happen.kazi za outsourcing sio za aina hii jamani.

in the west people design,they send the drawings to the "east" for air polluting industries to make prototypes.

they could offshore part of their operations to Some countries with favorable conditions of which we have none.

Drawings comes from research labs from R&D departments of the worlds best companies.and so far that is the only edge left that the west has over the east.leo hii mnasema wachukue drawings tanzania.au mnaongelea drawings gani?zile za adobe CS4?ramani za nyumba?au drawings gani?

Software development
Database management
Baadhi ya kazi za udaktari
Nursing
Banking
...the list goes on.


It makes a lot of business sense to offshore some of these operations to Africa/Asia.
Also there are chores that white people don't want to do anymore, because of tediousness. Take for example software testing and debugging.

Hapo uliposema "...we have none", unazungumzia Afrika au Tanzania? Nigeria haifanani na Tanzania.

 

[Kimweri]

​

Software development
Database management
Baadhi ya kazi za udaktari
Nursing
Banking
...the list goes on.


It makes a lot of business sense to offshore some of these operations to Africa/Asia.
Also there are chores that white people don't want to do anymore, because of tediousness. Take for example software testing and debugging.

Hapo uliposema "...we have none", unazungumzia Afrika au Tanzania? Nigeria haifanani na Tanzania.

not a single serious company is going to offshore to Nigeria.Tanzania as well, ninachoona sasa hivi ni hivyo viji-center vya IT vinavyofundisha kozi za word na Excel.ninachoona TZ ni graduates wa CS wasioweza kuandika hata NUSU program,ninachoona ni Telecom Engineers wanaofanya kazi za maafisa uhusiano.ninachoona ni IT graduates wanaofanya kazi za ku-install na ku-uninstall antiviruses kwenye computer za maofisi ya serikali huku wakijiita IT exparts.jamani kuweka OS kwenye computer au ku-empty recycle bin sio kuwa IT expert.

ningependa IT TZ iwe juu lakini that is just a wishful thinking,we do not prepare favourable conditions for ourselves.kuanzia mavyuoni hadi makazini.

kazi ndogo hata ya kutengeneza database ya hospitali wahindi wana-peleka bangalore,sasa hao IT graduates watajifunza,kujiendeleza wapi?

in 10 years we will only have enough to handle our own problems if we work really hard from now,BUT NOT SOLVING anyone else's problems.

naomba unitajie japo 5 global companies zenye research centers AFRICA,pliz usitaje zile research za malaria na AIDS.

nitajie japo 5 global companies zenye their worldwide DATA centers AFRICA.

kuhusu madaktari na manesi,hivi hujui ratio ya doctors to patients TANZANIA au unasema tu ndugu yangu?

hao mawaziri wetu wakiumwa wanaenda kutibiwa US,UK leo wagonjwa wa US watibiwe na daktari wa MUHIMBILI?!HOW?wagonjwa wa UK wawe refered TZ?vipi ndugu?

unafaham gap la vifaa kati ya hospitali za EUROPE,US na TANZANIA?

banking?are you serious?nani atakuja kuchukua huduma za kibenki za TANZANIA?afuate nini hasa?zile 4 digit passwords?kadi zisizofanya kazi for 3 straight transactions?bank zisizo camera?!from which a thief goes in and out like a Toilet or somthn?CRDB,NBC wanafuata ujuzi wa miaka 10 iliyopita US na EUROPE and not otherwise.

Ndugu hii outsourcing nadhani huelewi inavyofanya kazi.sio kiholela holela hivyo.