Women’s BPO launched in Uduvil

Fresh with the thoughts of the International Women’s Day ICTA launched the first women’s rural BPO recently. It is also the third rural BPO to be thus launched. This BPO, in the Jaffna district, was launched in partnership with the Foundation for Advancing Rural Opportunities. This latest initiative was not only the very first in the Northern Province but was also the very first women’s BPO in the country, a senior ICTA spokesperson said. According to ICTA sources it is the outcome of a successful collaboration between the ICTA which has been at the helm of driving ICT in rural areas and the Foundation for Advancing Rural Opportunity, FARO a non profit organization that actively supports employment generation in rural areas by outsourcing business processes of Colombo based blue chip companies to the village.

This new BPO, named after the founder of the school is the Eliza Agnew BPO Service Centre (http://www.eabpo.com ) and is hosted at the Uduvil Girls’ College in Jaffna. Partnering FARO on this venture is Hayleys Business Solutions International (Pvt) Ltd., HBSI (Pvt) Ltd who is very enthusiastic about their foray into rural areas with outsourcing work. The company was closely involved in the project from the onset - in selecting operators, training and equipping the Centre.

The ICTA sees this as a very important milestone in its efforts at taking the benefits of ICT to every village and every citizen. More importantly it supports the government in its efforts at ensuring an equitable development of the country in the aftermath of a civil war that plagued the country for several decades. The e-Society Programme of the ICTA has successfully implemented over 200 ICT based projects across the country. These projects have delivered to the doorstep of rural communities a host of valuable services - crop price information delivered to farmers via their mobiles; coordinates for fishing locations delivered to fishermen via their mobiles; Text-to- Braille software which opens up the internet and e mail up for visually impaired; e learning software that makes learning fun for kids - this is just a small segment of what has been made possible.

The very first rural BPO was birthed in the village of Mahavilachchiya in the Anuradhapura District (http://www.ontimetechnologies.net). The ICTA and FARO came together for this project which today works for Informate the BPO arm of John Keells Holdings. The 20 operators are themselves the shareholders of the Company and earn an average Rs. 15,000 to 20,000 per month. The Company was even able to declare a 30% dividend this year. Since the boys and girls who work in their own village they do not have to incur any additional expense on board and lodging or on transport.

The success of this initial pilot led the ICTA and FARO to take their partnership further afield to the tsunami affected village of Seenigama (http://www.seenigamabpo.com ) where 15 young boys and girls work from their village for Informate and now to Uduvil in the war-torn Northern Province of Sri Lanka.

With this ground breaking initiative 15 young girls have been given the opportunity to provide back office accounting services to HBSI (Pvt) Ltd, one of the major business conglomerates in the country. The Eliza Agnew BPO Service Centre in Uduvil follows the unique ownership model as that of Ontime Technologies in Mahavilachchiya and Seenigama BPO Technologies where the operators themselves own and manage their company.

This project has not only provided sustainable employment opportunities to rural youth but it has also paved the way for developing managerial capacity of young boys and girls in rural areas. The first CEO of the Mahavilachchiya BPO is in fact today employed by a leading private sector company in Colombo.