The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) or call centre sector is a significant driver of economic growth and job creation in Cape Town and employs 60 000 young people, according to CapeBPO.

Through this partnership, an impressive 6 399 new job opportunities were created between January and December 2020, in the midst of one of the hardest series of national lockdowns.

​Today, I was joined by the Western Cape Government’s Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities, David Maynier, and I had the pleasure of attending and opening iContact’s new call centre operation in Paarden Eiland. iContact specialises in inbound and outbound sales and customer support services and are expanding their operations to Cape Town.

This expansion will allow iContact to attract more business, thereby bringing investment into the local economy, creating new jobs and attracting international business to our shores.

Through the Cape Skills and Employment Accelerator project, the City is upskilling unemployed South African youth and women for placement into job opportunities in the thriving BPO sector. More than 3 000 job opportunities will be created over the next three years through this project.

In addition to the call centre opening, I had the opportunity to visit the first intake of students from this project at two impressive companies, Merchants and WNS, this week.

Merchants, situated in Salt River, work with local South African companies such as Woolworths, Massmart and Experian. The company has also recently gone live with rendering customer service support for Pick ‘n Pay.

I also visited WNS in Century City, a global leader in the BPO sector, where learners from the Cape Skills and Employment Accelerator project are currently based.

By attracting investment to our city, we can push growth to all corners of Cape Town and build the right conditions to ensure we come back stronger after the COVID-19 pandemic.