Ramesh Awtaney, Founder and Chairman of iSON Group has called on Africa to replicate the India’s model in order to achieve within 5 -10 years what India did in 25 years.

He said that in 2015 approximately 230,000 new jobs were added in India’s ICT sector, while sector’s current overall employment figure remains well worth of 10 million.

This feat, he said was not achieved on the back of profound innovation or sudden breakthrough, but by a collective determination to get things done by government, academia, and industry experts as a means to fuel economic growth.

He cited the youth population of India in the age group 15-34 to be 400 million, while Africa is comparable with 300 million youth, adding that like India, all Africa requires is commitment to attain this height.

According to Ramesh, the ICT sector requires only one material which is educated youth which Africa seems to have in abundance as Africa not only speak English, but French, German, Spanish and Arabi



“In the 1990s and early 2000, offshore was the buzzword in India as jobs moved from Europe and America to India, whereby know how of processes became the intellectual properties. As economies begin to grow in Africa, there is a need to outsource non – core functions.

“This can be achieved in two ways. Either one brings work to intellectual property or knowledge (intellectual property) to work.

“The Indian model is that of former in which businesses from other countries bring the work to India. This is called work to intellectual property (IP). iSON, when it was founded 6 years ago in Africa, decided to do the latter,” he pointed out.

Elaborating further, Ramesh revealed that iSON brought the knowledge from India to Africa instead of taking work from Africa to India.

He buttressed that as at today, iSON has created over 10,000 jobs, having employed over 20,000 people since its inception, adding that to create these 10,000 jobs, USD 20 million has been invested, whereas no other industry can one make an impact of 20,000 jobs with 20 million dollars.

With these 20,000 well trained and skilled employees, he noted that the ‘’Knowledge Base’’ has been created and this would help propel the growth domestically.

He affirmed that what will help create the skills set for the real jobs in Africa is relevant education, since today’s Africa, about 80 per cent – 90 per cent of what is taught in schools is irrelevant, as schools’ curricula need to change.

“Africa needs to change her curricula to include what is industry relevant. This, in turn, will create the jobs, create the skills that are required, and start an offshore industry.

“The ICT growth we clamour for in Africa cannot be achieved by just going after the domestic requirements.

“Also as the ICT industry matures in India, they like to take on more value addition jobs. Companies have grown and evolved in their circle, and aim to move up their billable from $20,000 per employee a year to $80,000 per employee a year. Indian companies are now looking to concentrate on big data analytics. These are the opportunities available for Africa to capture in the outsourcing space of basic IT and ITes,” Ramesh highlighted.

He maintained that offshore requirements have to be a major target and in order to achieve that, good project management is required.

“There has to be collaborations between the existing technology ecosystem, academics and key industry players. The government on the other hand, need to formulate policies which encourage offshoring to Africa much like India did in 1990s and early 2000,” Ramesh concludes.

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