Subscribe
About

Jobs boost for SA as TransUnion opens BPO centre

Sibahle Malinga
By Sibahle Malinga, ITWeb senior news journalist.
Johannesburg, 23 Feb 2021
Avesh Singh, head of TransUnion’s Global Capability Centre in SA.
Avesh Singh, head of TransUnion’s Global Capability Centre in SA.

TransUnion has opened a new business process outsourcing (BPO) centre in SA, which is set to boost job creation in the country.

TransUnion is a consumer credit reporting agency that collects and aggregates information on over one billion individual consumers across the globe.

The opening of the Global Capability Centre comes as SA’s unemployment rate rose to 32.5% in the last three months of 2020, as revealed today by statistician-general Risenga Maluleke.

The increase presents a 1.7 percentage point increase from the third quarter of 2020.

In a statement, TransUnion says the new virtual centre, which will be headed by veteran BPO executive, Avesh Singh, will support TransUnion’s global operations.

The virtual BPO centre is part of the company’s wider initiative which also sees TransUnion’s Global Capability Centre in Chennai, India, being expanded to the city of Pune.

According to the company, the Chennai centre, which launched in 2018, already employs more than 900 talented professionals.

Singh, who has led similar operations around the globe, says the new centre would build on TransUnion’s existing presence on the continent, and see the company investing heavily in local talent.

“TransUnion’s ongoing global growth relies on a flexible, scalable, always-on workforce available anywhere in the world. The SA-based centre is a foundational investment that will foster greater diversity, the development of new skills, enable innovation and deliver value for the organisation and the clients and consumers it serves. South Africa has a wealth of talent and our investment recognises the strength and depth within the local market,” says Singh, head of the Global Capability Centre.

Creating Global Capability Centres across multiple continents allows TransUnion to take advantage of time zones, expand language coverage and leverage talent globally, says the company.

“As a truly global information and insights company, we must facilitate trust in a faster and more efficient manner than ever before to help businesses compete today and in the future,” says Eric Hess, TransUnion executive VP for global operations.

“Our virtual South Africa capability centre will allow us to drive innovation and cutting-edge solutions by accessing the best and brightest talent available – wherever it may be located in the country. TransUnion has a long history of investing in its presence in Africa and we’re delighted to be deepening our capabilities across the continent.”

Business Process Enabling South Africa (BPESA), whose mission is to create a trading environment in the global business services sector in South Africa, welcomed the TransUnion announcement.

“Having an international giant such as TransUnion, which services over one billion individual consumers in over 30 countries choose South Africa, as a strategic delivery destination speaks volumes for the quality of talent available to support the variety of services required,” says Andy Searle, CEO of BPESA.

“TransUnion is both harnessing the abundance of skilled youthful talent, as well as a robust enabling environment by setting this new centre as a virtual work from home opportunity. The sector is strengthened through this choice and we look forward to supporting TransUnion with its growth and the rollout of its global capability centre.”

Share