The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies, congratulates Webhelp SA on the launch of their Johannesburg contact centre which has thus far created 200 jobs. It is further expected that the contact centre will create a total of 570 jobs in the next four years.
Webhelp is a French-owned Global Contact Centre company which has contact centres in Algeria, Belgium, France, Madagascar, Morocco, Netherlands, Romania, United Kingdom, and more recently South Africa. The Webhelp investment in South Africa is expected to rise to more than R220 million over three years.
Craig Gibson, CEO, said "Webhelp took the strategic decision to proceed with the South African investment once the business criteria of a large skills pool of English language speakers was verified together with the quality of the skills available. Additional factors included the ability to scale their operations whilst sustaining high performance, cultural affinity with the UK and the time zone compatibility". He added that "the Business Process Services (BPS) incentive has made the South African Value Proposition compelling as it allows South African companies bidding for UK contracts to offer a more cost competitive proposal when compared to other offshore destinations such as India and the Philippines".
The Webhelp Contact Centre in Johannesburg will service the UK Cellular Phone operator Vodafone, providing Customer Services to their UK subscribers. Commenting on the launch, Minister Davies said: "It is good to see the partnership between government and business working together to promote South Africa as a preferred location for outsourced business processes. Job creation and growing our economy are important objectives for the South African government."
The Webhelp Contact Centre in Johannesburg is the second operation launched by the company. The first facility was launched in Cape Town in March 2014 which created 350 new jobs. Webhelp SA expects to create a total of 5 000 jobs in South Africa by 2017.
The Business Process Service sector is key to attracting investment and creating new jobs especially in the 18-35 age group, where jobs are most needed.
The dti's BPS incentive plays a supporting role in attracting new investment into the sector. The BPS incentive was introduced in 2007 with the purpose of making South Africa’s Value Proposition increasingly attractive when compared to other countries competing for offshore work such as India and the Philippines. The BPS incentive has been reviewed and the updated incentive for the industry will be launched be launched in October 2014
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe
Tel: 012 394 1650
Cell: 079 492 1774
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
