ADDRESS BY PROF. DORA AKUNLIYI, HONOURABLE
MINISTER OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS, AT
THE OPENING OF THE NATIONAL “OFF-SHORE NIGERIA”
CONFERENCE, HELD AT SHEHU MUSA YAR’ADUA CENTRE,
ABUJA, ON 2ND JUNE,2009.
PROTOCOLS
It is my pleasure to welcome you all to the National
Outsourcing Conference tagged “Offshore to Nigeria.” I do
wish to congratulate the World Bank and the Outsourcing
Development Initiative of Nigeria (ODIN) for organizing this
conference. The initiative is not only a right step in the right
direction, it is timely, as all efforts are now directed at
repositioning Nigeria as an acceptable brand.
2. This Conference is geared towards sensitizing the public
and the private sector on the benefits of developing the
outsourcing industry in Nigeria and how best to position
Nigeria as an offshoring destination of choice for organizations
all over the world.
3. Outsourcing arose as a management tool out of a
compelling need for organizations to be more productive,
focusing more on their core businesses, becoming more
competitive and more profitable. Today outsourcing represents
a whopping US$100 billion market that is growing at more than
30 percent per annum, with India taking the lead as the global
leader of the off shoring market. A position Nigeria can attain if
outsourcing/offshoring is given the required focus and right
enabling environment to grow the industry.
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4. It is a fact that Nigeria’s economic potential is vast. The
country’s considerable resource endowment, strategic coastal
location and large internal market should allow it to become an
economic powerhouse for Africa. Yet Nigeria has realized very
little of these great potentials. However, a turnaround is in the
making and conditions seem right for an ambitious push towards
a path of rapid and sustainable growth and development. The
present administration is very keen in supporting private sector-
led growth and looking for opportunities to diversify the economy.
While oil revenues are plentiful right now, government recognizes
that the key to long term growth lies in developing the non-oil
sector and empowering the private sector.
5. In this search for higher value added activities a new sector
presents itself – offshoring, especially in the Information
Communications Technology [ICT] Sector. Technological changes
in the past few years have transformed the global economy. In
the past, goods and capital could be exported relatively easily
while services and labour could not. In those days, successful
economic strategies attempted to attract capital to an economy in
order to produce more goods that could be exported and traded
for things that could not be produced domestically. However,
technological advancement in the late Twentieth and early
Twenty-First Centuries mean that it is no longer true that goods
are tradable and services are not. In fact more and more
services are easily tradable. Countries that are realizing this are
reaping great benefits from adapting their economies to be able
to compete better in the trade.
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6. The outsourcing industry is an industry with immense
potentials for economic growth and development. The
advantages that abound in this sector can not be over-
emphasized as a vibrant outsourcing sector. It is an industry
that serves as a means for:
Revenue generation
Wealth creation
Creation of employment
Skills enhancement and human capacity development
Technological advancements
7. All these will culminate in increased GDP level thereby
raising the standard of living of the people. With these benefits
coming to Nigeria from this industry, it will be an obvious
indicator that Nigeria is well positioned to live up to its brand
image as a country of “Good People, Great Nation”.
8. For this industry to be fully realized in Nigeria, there must
be concerted Public and Private Sector participation and
partnership. Garnered from the Indian, Chinese and Ghanaian
experience, Public Private Partnership is the most effective way
to successfully launch and maintain this industry in any nation.
9. In conclusion, there’s a need to create awareness and
advocacy for outsourcing in Nigeria as the industry is a sector
that is still relatively unknown in Nigeria. The few outsourcing
companies in Nigeria are doing businesses with limited resources
and infrastructural base. No doubt they are faced with a lot of
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challenges and constraints. The biggest constraint being an
unwillingness of corporations and companies in Nigeria to
outsource their non – core competencies, mainly due to
misconceptions about the nature of outsourcing and what it
entails. Most corporations in Nigeria and even government
agencies see outsourcing as purely beneficial to the outsourced
company and fail to see the benefits for them. These benefits
they fail to see include:
Getting access to cheaper and more efficient labor;
Cutting up on labor training cost;
Getting access to better technologies at a cheaper cost;
Increase in productivity and efficiency;
Concentrate on core competencies, etc
10. This conference is thus a medium to showcase the benefits
of outsourcing not just to the economy and the Nation as a
whole, but also to the companies that stand to benefit from the
creation of an outsourcing culture.
11. Your Excellencies, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
although micro and macro economic benefits of outsourcing are
far from clear, using a micro analytic approach to study firms and
companies, the following benefits could be derived:
i. By outsourcing non core competencies and focusing on
their core competencies, firms can realize substantial
potential savings by streamlining operations, improving
the effectiveness and efficiency of business processes
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and showing measurable return-on-investment that are
required to stay competitive.
ii. Also, by outsourcing non core competencies, firms are
more focused on the products and services they offer.
This enhances product innovation and diversity which
are also required to stay competitive. Taking this
perspective, outsourcing can be seen as a re-
organizational effort aimed at reduction of transaction
costs in a broad sense, thereby taking into account the
comparative costs of planning, adapting and monitoring
task completion under internal governance structure,
and
iii. The International Aid Agencies can offer assistance and
support by assisting in funding, creating awareness at
National and International levels, assisting in
sensitization campaigns like organization of seminars,
conferences etc. They can also offer assistance by
making readily available to the outsourcing companies
their wealth of experience and expertise in these
matters.
12. Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, with this I come to the
end of my address. I hope that I have been able to enlighten you
on the immense benefits and potentials this industry holds for
Nigeria. Once again I welcome you all.
13. Thank you for your rapt attention.
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DPC,
Your directive on page 34 of file refers please.
2. Abc is the draft speech for the Permanent Secretary.
3. Submitted please for your perusal and f.n.a.
IBIDAPO OKUNNU
ACIO (PC)
18th May, 2009
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