French, Call Center, Senegal

French call centers flourish in Senegal

With some of the best telecommunications on the continent, plenty of cheap labor, strong historic links with France and relative political stability, Senegal is increasingly taking on Morocco and Tunisia in the battle for the French call center outsourcing market.

“This industry creates a lot of jobs, and it’s an area where we can compete thanks to low labor costs,” Senegal’s Communications Minister Joseph Ndong said.

Senegal’s big draw card is its telecommunications – excellent by African standards and often cited as a model for a continent where expensive and unreliable phone and Internet connections often serve as extra deterrents for investors.

Senegal privatized fixed-line operator Sonatel, which is now part-owned by France Telecom, in 1997 - way before most African countries - and is about to invite bids for a second fixed license that will include a mobile and data component.

Access to the SAT-3 international undersea cable makes for fast Internet access and cheaper voice over Internet calls, while the government offered tax breaks to call center investors and has pushed Sonatel to cut call tariffs.

London-based research group Datamonitor says Senegal had 3,000 call center agent positions in 2005 but expects that to grow to 5,000 within three years – still small compared to outsourcing giants like India, but growing fast.