* CORRECTION We wish to apologise for the impression we gave in the following story that Kencall has closed its operations. CEO Nicholas Nesbitt contacted us to say that Kencall, in fact, is a busy and thriving operation with 600 people and is in a different league from other BPO operations in the country. We're happy to make that clear.

Nairobi-based call centre Kencall has closed down its operations owing to the high costs and limited international opportunities. The decision is a blow for the Kenyan Business Process Outsourcing (KPO) Society and its aggressive mission to position Kenya as a potential BPO destination for global players.

Several other call centres have also shut up shop for the same reasons, including Global Connect and Continental, and more closures are on the cards. Questions have been raised over the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) strategy of Kenya and the World Bank. BPOs in Kenya are supposed to get a subsidy under the World Bank-sponsored Kenya Transparency Infrastructure and Communication Programme, but the closure of these call centres is linked to suspicions that the subsidies will not be forthcoming.

In an interview given to an African website, ICT board deputy chief executive Victor Kyalo confirmed that the BPO industry is supposed to receive $8 million but nothing much has happened so far.

The cost of the bandwidth needed to run the operations are more than double that of India’s. As a result, MNCs refuse to give the contracts to these neglected Kenyan BPOs. X

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