Helpware Inc, a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company was on 10^th February 2023 launched at Makerere University College of Computing and Information Sciences (CoCIS) to mitigate the challenge of youth unemployment in Uganda.

The company set to conduct competence tests to select recruits will connect university graduates with in country and multinational companies abroad for jobs and internship placements. BPO utilizes third party vendors or subcontractors to carry out parts of their business operations

The Helpware career expo and launch at Makerere university was presided over by the Minister for ICT, represented by Prof. William Bazeeyo who is also Chair, Uganda BPO Council.

With over 53 universities churning out thousands of graduates annually, Prof. Bazeeyo said Uganda has more programs and skilled human resource base that are more resilient for the BPO opportunities than the neighboring countries.

In addition to the establishing a national data centre, supporting research  in Higher education institutions  and  building  skilling centres  across the country, Bazeeyo reported that government was committed to subsidize on the cost of the  internet to facilitate and tap into  online business opportunities for Ugandans starting February 2023.

“We are going to build skilling centers for Ugandans in Kampala and other regions. The Ministry of Information Communication Technology has reduced the cost of internet in this country so that everybody can work on internet from anywhere.

We have signed MoUs with several groups, so we are focusing on jobs around those regions. There are two types of work, one is in-country and the other off -shore so you can work here but in a country you have never been to”. He said.

Bazeeyo urged universities to set up mechanisms of skilling people while still on campus so that when they are finished, they can be employed to serve using their laptops.

“We are looking at working with institutions to create the skill sets that you are able to be employed. Universities need to skill their people, so we are going to bring opportunities to come and train our trainers for skilling the youth and we believe we shall have this done free.

We hope that some of these halls of residences can be used to skill people. We want to identify skill so that you are trained and will pay you so that you do not only get that government pay but also pay you”, I would like to interest you all to try and learn from these people”. He added.

The Chief Executive Officer Helpware Inc Robert Nash said the mechanism they chose to deliver this opportunity was through BOP. BPO according to Robert Nash is making third parties to carry out some parts of key business functionality required to run their day to day business.

Describing Uganda as special, Nash asserted that the BPO industry contributes about 40 billion dollars annually to the local economy and was growing on a rate of about 20%, year over year with the industry size overall on an annual basis of 275 billion dollars spent on BPO services expected to continue in 2023 to 2030 at the exact same rate.

“Uganda is actually more equipped, more capable in terms of   infrastructure and overall population to grow even faster and have a larger foot print in the global BPO market. And yet when we stand here today, we may be the first international global BPO Company to really drive the stake on ground in Uganda.

The industry’s capability to bring many jobs over the next years is just as really as just is trouble and that is the why we are here in Kampala and that’s the opportunity that you have at hand to seize today”, He said

Angella Kakumirizi from  Helpware  Uganda said,  the  main target  of the company  are  graduates in the country who  have no jobs to take on customer service support roles, in data entry field, marketing, and business fields, health care support, training and team leaders and  investment analysts among others.

Student population will undergo the competence test in English proficiency, basic tasks as well as computers skills to gauge the kind of talents they possess.

“The process is completely transparent and open. Helpware post job will be on the website. We don’t have any one paying or any one talking to another person for a job. We will encourage all the graduates to apply on the company website.

We already know that the graduates are well equipped but we want to know for future planning purposes what do the students have, what are their English levels. We have C1, C2, B1, B2 and our target is B2 and above. If the tests prove that Ugandan students can speak good English which is B2, we can plan for how many jobs are supposed to come here and even talk to more clients to bring even more depending on what the results are”, she explained.

Representing the Principal CoCIS, the Ag. Deputy Principal Dr. Peter Nabende recognized partners NITA Uganda, Uganda Communications Commission, Uganda Investment Authority, and Helpware Inc. for offering the opportunity for graduating students.

“This is a great college and Helpware chose the best. Our graduates are Proficient”, Dr. Nabende remarked.

Statistics show that Uganda produces over 45 thousand graduates every year but only 10 thousand are absorbed in the labour industry leaving 30 thousand graduates jobless irrespective of the course they did at university.

Compiled by:

Jane Anyango

Comunication Officer, CoCIS