The call was made yesterday by Manzi Nkubito Bakuramutsa, an ICT official in the Office of the President while opening a one-day meeting of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) cluster workgroup at Telecom House.

He urged them to be innovative as an essential element for rapid building of the country’s IT knowledge base.

The meeting organized by Rwanda Development Board (RDB) in conjunction with the OTF Group, is aimed at creating a dynamic, committed and engaged BPO cluster workgroup to ensure the successful targeted growth of this inititiatve.

"Your partnership with big companies will help you produce high quality personnel fit for the growing IT industry in the country,” Nkubito challenged the operators.

Reid Whitlock, the OTF Group Country Director, said that BPO will help Rwanda achieve its long-term strategic goals like vision 2020.

"In the long term, the service sector will become the most important engine of the economy and economic zones for ICT-based production will be crucial for enhancing competitiveness of Rwanda’s firms,” he said

"Rwanda needs to specialize in innovative and niche segments that are positioned for and support value added services,” he added.
Among the top companies that took part in the meeting was KenCall, a Kenyan-based IT company which has won several awards.

Currently, Rwanda has close to 100 private and public IT companies.

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