One of South Africa’s biggest banks officially opened a contact center at the Coega Industrial Development Zone creating 94 new jobs for people in economically depressed areas located close to the site.
Absa became the first investor in the Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) sector to enter in the Coega IDZ, ahead of international companies in talks with the Coega Development Corp. (CDC) for prime space in the massive BPO Park planned for Coega.
"The project came at the right time when we were making a concerted effort to attract companies in the BPO sector," said CDC Business Development Executive Khwezi Tiya.
"Our solutions-driven approach to servicing potential investors was key to bringing the project to finality. We are proud to have convinced Absa to locate the project here for maximum benefit. From the outset we expected positive to excellent results from this project and our value proposition has been proven correct," added Tiya.
Head of the Absa Contact Center, Andy Rigg, is pleased that the success of the project confirmed the bank’s strategy of combining business with social imperatives. "The results are very exciting and we are not surprised because that is what you get when like-minded people gather in pursuit of a common objective," said Rigg, referring to the Bank’s partnership with the CDC.
The Absa Contact Center at Coega started in January this year as a proof of concept. The outbound facility currently employs 105 people, mostly fromnearby townships of Motherwell, Zwide, Kwazekhele and New Brighton. The majority of these residents were previously unemployed or had very little work experience.
The initiative was aimed at doing business in a responsible way that enables people to uplift themselves through employment and business opportunities. The key focus was on affording work experience to unemployed individuals. Although configured to provide an end-to-end service to customers needing short term lending products, the contact center is geared towards making a positive social impact in the economically depressed areas of the Eastern Cape.
