CASE STUDIES FROM AFRICA

and a forecast of 18.7 Gbit/s in 2013), Sonatel’s infrastructure has enabled Senegal’s call centres to
operate as if they were located in close proximity to the customers and businesses they serve.
Figure 6: Public Infrastructure Required
Figure 6a: Rank in the Openness to Technology Index
(2013) Rank 1 to 148 (1 is the best rank)
Figure 6b: Quality of General Infrastructure (2013, scale 0-7)
Senegal
Ghana
Tunisia
Morocco
Mauritius
South Africa
Egypt
63
62
83
80
95
99
100
Senegal
Ghana
Tunisia
Morocco
Mauritius
South Africa
Egypt
3.4
3.8
4.1
4.9
4.8
4.5
3.3
Source: World Economic Forum, Global Competitiveness Report,
2014.
Source: World Economic Forum, Global Competitiveness Report,
2014.
Figure 6c: Quality of international Internet bandwidth (2013 kb/s
per user)
Figure 6d: Quality of electricity supply (2013, scale 0-7)
Senegal
Ghana
Tunisia
Morocco
Mauritius
South Africa
Egypt
0.2
4.1
5.4
14.8
14.6
19
18.7
Senegal
Ghana
Tunisia
Morocco
Mauritius
South Africa
Egypt
2.3
2.7
3.4
3.8
5.3
5.1
5.5
Source: World Economic Forum, Global Competitiveness Report,
2014.
Source: World Economic Forum, Global Competitiveness Report,
2014.
This contrasts with many of the African countries that import BPO and ICT services from Senegal,
where the level of broadband infrastructure is quite low. Indeed many of the BPO and ICT
stakeholders consulted cited the poor infrastructure elsewhere on the continent as being a
significant impediment to their exports (including for the establishment of new call centres).
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