Mauritius provides for an interesting and strategic destination for any ICT/BPO company to establish operations. Being one of the easiest countries for doing business and among the most developed nations in Africa, the country is a great land of opportunities. Over the years, Mauritius has made impressive strides towards ICT development and developing ICT as a crosscutting enabler for the development of other sectors. From Financial services and Fintech, Education and Health services, Smart cities and Real estate development, the ICT sector is more than ever participating in the growth momentum of these sectors and its relevance and contribution is becoming more prominent and pronounced.

The Mauritian ICT/BPO industry is a classic success story of growth, survival and rising to the occasion. Since the year 2000, the growth in the ICT sector has been gradually propelled through implementation of various national policies, plans and initiatives which resulted in huge revenue generation as well as new companies set up. With the country moving to greater levels of digital transformation triggered by the adoption of new technologies, growth in the ICT industry is expected to be further accentuated in the coming years.

The vision of the Government to transform the island into a digital economy has been underpinned by the numerous new innovation programs and enhanced collaboration with industry. While the initial value proposition was hinged on cost and talent, the industry focus has shifted, over the years, to value-added services focused on innovation. Service providers have been able to put plans in place to reskill people, hire new talent, forge new partnerships, and realign their delivery methodologies to emerge as the partner of choice for clients’ digital transformation initiatives.

The Remarkable Resilience of Mauritian ICT / BPO industry Through Covid 19 pandemic

The emergence of COVID-19 was an unexpected event and has had a huge impact on global economy. Like most countries in the world, Mauritius has not been spared from COVID-19. However, Government has been very proactive with the implementation of a series of measures in support of businesses and workers with the primary objective of minimizing layoffs and assisting companies to weather the storm by meeting their cash flow requirements. Amidst the COVID 19 pandemic, many enterprises demonstrated strong resilience in face of unprecedented global disruption, by re-engineering business models and creating new opportunities.

With a GDP contribution of 7% as at 2020 and a growth rate of 3.9% amidst a difficult pandemic situation, there is no doubt that the Mauritian ICT/BPO industry has become a driving force of economic growth. Today, the industry which comprises of some 850 companies and is also a net hirer, offers an entire gamut of products/solution/platforms/services and has established its presence across the value chain of diverse verticals with clients spread throughout the world.

As the industry gets more traction with rapid digitalization, existing companies, have also been continuously expanding their operations riding on the digitalization wave and capitalizing on the fact that the country has been COVID Safe for more than 10 months. Global indications are strong for a robust demand of digital transformation projects and strategic offshoring thus unleashing opportunities for the Mauritian ICT/BPO industry.

As clients’ expectation from service providers has shifted from innovation to resilience, EDB endeavors putting forth some of the successful expansion case studies thus underlying not only the ingenuity of an industry but also proactiveness of a whole nation.

Concentrix builds further confidence in the Mauritian economy by unveiling an ambitious recruitment plan

Concentrix is a leading global provider of technology-infused Customer Experience (“CX”) solutions headquartered in California and serving over 95 Fortune Global 500 clients as well as more than 90 high growth companies across various verticals and geographies. The group employs around 270,000 employees across more than 280 locations in more than 40 countries and 6 continents.

Concentrix opened its centre in Mauritius on June 2017 as part of its objective in further strengthening its SMART shoring proposition for French, as well as Canadian companies and multi-nationals seeking a French language or bilingual customer service solution. The company which employs more than 250 people has recently unveiled its ambitious plans to reach 500 people by end 2021 and 1000 by end 2022.

The group in Mauritius is focused on expanding its client base in higher growth verticals and has signed long term deals with at least 3 new flagship international brands for provision of customer relationship services and activities related to sales, customer Service, technical Support, customer retention and collections services.
While on one hand the presence of Concentrix on the ICT landscape emphasizes its confidence in Mauritius’ greatest asset, namely people, qualifications and skills, its expansion plan is a great illustration of how Mauritius is being at the forefront of innovation in technology and delivery models, capturing opportunities and growing at a fast rate.