Recently South Africa was announced the winner of the National Outsourcing Association’s (NOA’s) Offshoring Destination of the Year Award. Within South Africa, Cape Town is the leading city for BPO and the establishment of call centres for new international companies, as well being the preferred location for the expansion of various domestic and international operations in recent years. Cape Town plays host to a number of leading global brands including Amazon, ASDA, Bloomberg, British Gas, iiNet, Shell, Shop Direct and T-Mobile.

Making Cape Town a destination in which the call centre industry can thrive ties in with the City of Cape Town’s efforts to build an Opportunity City, by creating an economically enabling environment in which business can thrive and jobs can be created.

In Cape Town, the BPO/call centre industry has grown from 20 428 agents in 2007/8, to 27 552 in 2011/12. This represents a year on year growth of 10.5%.

The offshoring sector saw even greater growth during this period, increasing from 2 963 to 4 727 agents within the same time period, representing a year on year growth of 16.9%. Within the last year this sector has created 1 619 direct jobs, and has attracted investment to the value of R510 million.