Even as Kenya’s business process outsourcing industry continues to grow, companies that are meant to be its customers are becoming its competitors as they shun outsourcing of non-core functions.

Most corporates are, indeed, setting up inhouse (or captive) call centres that handle various customer queries from within, thereby denying BPOs the much-needed business.

This is evident from the list of local firms that have set up their own call centres, among them Safaricom.

Last year, the mobile service provider established its 500-seat call centre.

Others are Co-operative Bank of Kenya, with a 34-seat contact centre and Kenya Commercial Bank, which recently opened a 49-seat contact centre at a cost of $807,692 at its Kencom House headquarters in Nairobi.

The centre will handle customer queries from all its regional operations.

Among the reasons advanced by corporates for not outsourcing are lack of capacity by local BPO operators, confidentiality of client information, trust and quality of service.

Jimmy Masinde, head of KCB’s contact centre, says many businesses believe that customer service should be handled inhouse, and that only tele-sales should be outsourced.

Mr Masinde says call centres can support non-main frame financial institutions like insurance firms but not banks, as information about clients’ accounts is very crucial.

“Outsourcing means no infrastructure, technology and human resource costs... but at what expense to the organisation?” asks Mr Masinde.

He adds that there would be no assurance on quality of service, efficiency and turnaround times.

“BPOs are a recent phenomenon. They are still sourcing most of their work from outside the country.

Many local firms are yet to trust BPOs with their customer service work,” says Mr Masinde, adding that “even developed markets took time to outsource to BPOs.”

“The risk involved in sharing data is the main reason many corporates are not outsourcing customer services. But the proposed credit reference bureau will rectify the situation,” he says.

Many people also prefer being employed by inhouse call centres to independent BPOs due to better terms of service, remuneration and job security.

“Compared to BPOs, the captive centres (inhouse) offer better packages due to their strong financial base,” says Gilda Odera, the chairperson of the Kenya BPO and Contact Centre Society.

A 2008 study on BPOs by the University of Nairobi and the call centre society found that Kenyan BPOs pay operators about $150 and professionals about $500 a month.

To mitigate against high staff turnover, Ms Odera, who is also the chief executive of SkyWeb Evans, a local BPO, says the society is working with the government “to develop a large pool of personnel through training using a $2 million World Bank capacity building allocation to Kenya.”

Statistics indicate that Kenya currently has 29 registered BPOs and call centres, employing about 8,000 people.

The figure covers both captive call centres and independent BPOs.

The country’s BPO seat capacity has moved from 300 seats in 2006 to the current figure, with the government’s goal being to create 30,000 jobs in the sector in the next three years.

The entry of various fibre optic cables in the region will help Kenya tap into the global BPO sub-sector, currently worth over $130 billion.