Despite being a youth employment green shoot, South Africa’s global business services (GBS) sector is unlikely to reach 500 000cumulative jobs by 2030, as envisaged in the 2021 master plan.
This is according to Reshni Singh, CEO of industry body Business Process Enabling South Africa (BPESA), responding to ITWeb during a media engagement earlier this week.
The shifting landscape of the GBS industry, historically known as business process outsourcing (BPO), was the key focus at the media briefing hosted by BPESA and Nutun.
It covered artificial intelligence (AI) integration, changing client demands and the economic impact of technology in South Africa.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, South Africa’s government designated GBS as the sector that will steer economic reconstruction and recovery.
The sector was one of the few to add instead of shed jobs during the pandemic and since 2021, which is what sparked the master plan’s target aspirations.
Commenting on whether the country is on track to achieve this goal, Singh said a more realistic target is an estimated 150 000 additional jobs.
“The master plan has four scenarios: there was a baseline scenario that was the rate at which we were performing in 2021 when it was signed. Then we had expanded, accelerated and the highest growth scenarios. Under each scenario, we had activities that needed to take place to reach those numbers.
“So, the highest growth scenario is what would have resulted in 500 000 jobs. Current performance sits between expanded and accelerated scenarios. I think this quarter would have gone slightly over that, between the accelerated and the highest.
“The scenarios were depicted between 250 000 and 500 000 jobs. Realistically, we are saying we think there will be 150 000 more jobs between now (obviously taking this year into account) and 2030, as opposed to 500 000.”
Singh clarified that this is the industry association’s perspective based on the dynamics around AI, the shifts and complexities of roles that are required, etc.
She added that while the sector has created 200 000 cumulative jobs since 2006, job growth projections should be slightly adjusted. “I’d say that we’ll add 50% [150 000] than what we expected.”
The BPESA CEO also commended the evolution of services during this period, saying it was “literally voice BPO activity that took place, but now it's much more than that”.
She continued: “We’re currently working on refining our professional services value proposition, which includes everything in terms of finance, HR, etc. Then there's digital and ITO [information technology outsourcing] as well, so it just opens more opportunities.
“We’ve seen post-COVID there’s a lot more interest for the more complex roles…those complex roles are not going to scale, which is another reason why the 500 000 is not going to be doable.”
Accredited by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, BPESA is the national industry body and trade association for BPO in the country, serving the international and domestic markets. It serves as the link between industry and government.
Global business services refer to offshore jobs that are outsourced to the South African workforce.
South Africa’s key offshore market is the UK, with 60% of the local workforce delivering services to UK clients. The US is the second-largest source market, followed by Australia and other parts of Europe.
The GBS master plan is a national strategy signed in November 2021, to establish the country as a premier offshore customer experience and digital services destination.
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