ICT and Digital Economy PS John Tanui has assured investors the government is addressing challenges hampering Kenya's competitiveness in the export of ICT-based labour services.

Eng Tanui intimated that the ICT and Digital Economy was strategically working to eradicate existing barriers facing businesses operating in the Business Process Outsourcing sector.

The Principal Secretary was speaking when he toured the Nairobi operating hub for Sama, a firm that provides data annotation solutions that seek to power the AI models of the future.

He said the Government also plans to establish more than 1,450 digital hubs in each ward in the 47 county governments and link them to the country’s robust fibre optic network.

According to the government, such a vast countrywide connectivity will expectedly help create more than one million jobs in the ICT sector and spur economic development.

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Sama Global CEO Wendy Gonzalez warned that Kenya risks losing more than 2,500 jobs to be created during its expansion plans if regulatory challenges hampering the growth of the entire BPO sector are not addressed.

Eng Tanui says the government will tackle legal and other barriers to secure such jobs.

“Sama is a global organization that currently employs more than 3,500 Kenyans and projects to increase this number by 2,500 by next year. I have heard their concerns, and I can confirm that the Government will relentlessly work to address operating challenges affecting Kenya's competitiveness in the global market,” said Eng Tanui.

He added: “The Government is committed to securing these 2,500 jobs by Sama as we race to formulate the necessary policies and regulations to accelerate the growth of players in the BPO sector.”

Gonzalez says the global BPO market is estimated to be valued at more than US$ 262 billion and countries in Africa are continuing to emerge as the next frontier of growth for BPOs.

“Economic players are investing heavily in AI, with such investments now estimated to top US$ 2 trillion by 2030. Notably, the AI sector is a growth line for players in the BPO sector as it requires substantial human support to build and validate input data," said Gonzalez.

She added, “Sama has been in Kenya for the last 15 years and continues to provide quality formal jobs for Kenyans, providing value chain AI solutions for self-driving cars, virtual reality gaming consoles, fashion segmentation and Agricultural solutions for crop disease protection.”

Sama recently unveiled Platform 2.0, a re-engineered computer vision platform to reduce risks of machine learning (ML) algorithm failure and consists of SamaIQ™, SamaAssure™ and SamaHub™.

The BPO company says the three platforms offer enhanced transparency for clients to minimize rework and allows Sama to deliver annotated data and insights three times faster.

The company says Platform 2.0 has realized a 99 per cent client acceptance rate for AI training data through SamaAssure, the industry's highest quality assurance.