The country’s efforts to increase its digital outsourcing exports have received a welcome boost courtesy of Madrid-based business process outsourcing (BPO) firm Konecta, which will kick off operations in Egypt, set up a regional HQ in the country, and invest USD 100 mn in the country over the coming three years under an MoU inked with the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), according to a cabinet statement.

Konecta will set up an Egyptian arm dubbed Konecta Egypt for Customer Service to provide outsourcing services to markets in the MIddle East, Africa, Europe, and the Americas with its headquarters being set up in New Cairo. The company is expected to provide some 3k jobs and offer a wide range of technical services that include AI solutions, digital transformation, IoT, data analytics, and multilingual customer support.

The firm also plans to set up its first global center of excellence for generative AI in Egypt, through which it plans to “transfer knowledge and expertise to Egyptian talent in areas including conversational AI, data analytics, and other emerging technologies,” according to the statement.

Remember, the government wants to see digital exports bring in USD 9 bn into the economy annually as of 2026 and then up to USD 13 bn by 2030. We’re yet to hear the most recent figures for 2024, but Egypt’s digital exports brought in USD 6.2 bn in 2023, up 26.5% y-o-y from 2022. The figure includes outsourcing exports — think call centers and human resource centers — which accounted for over half of the digital exports in 2023, standing at USD 3.7 bn, up 54% y-o-y.

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