From May 21st to 25th, Her Highness Astrid, the Princess of Belgium, is leading a comprehensive economic mission to Dakar. The mission, which comprises more than 350 representatives, including 160 companies, 20 universities or higher education institutions, and several business federations and investment funds, aims to strengthen the longstanding ties between Belgium and African nations. For Nixxis, this official visit presents an opportunity to reaffirm its position in the African market.
The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) sector, which accounts for 30 million jobs worldwide, typically sees 20 to 25% of these positions located in “offshore” areas with high levels of education but low incomes. Such regions include the Maghreb, West Africa, Madagascar, and Mauritius for French-speaking services, and the Philippines, South Africa, and Latin America for English and Spanish-speaking services.
As a Belgian company, Nixxis currently generates 90% of its revenue from exports, with approximately 25% coming from Africa. In the coming years, this proportion is expected to increase significantly due to the combined growth of both “offshore” and “onshore” African markets. The latter is rapidly expanding, driven by the widespread use of smartphones among African users and the accelerated digitization of their administrations and businesses. It’s worth noting that, unlike European or US markets where voice communication remains the preferred channel, most African countries have readily embraced digital channels over voice.
In this context, Senegal has emerged as a preferred destination for French-speaking call centers due to its skilled workforce, economic development, political stability, and excellent fiber-optic connectivity linked directly to top European data centers.
Having already established a presence in the Maghreb countries since 2016, Nixxis already serves significant clients in Africa, including the Gambian telecommunications operator, GAMCEL. The next step is to establish a permanent office in Dakar, with the objective of serving not only Senegal but also the rapidly developing West African region (such as Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, and Benin) and subsequently expanding to the rest of Central Africa (including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Togo, Kenya, and Nigeria). To achieve this goal, we can rely on the support of our local partner, Sylamtech, as well as the relationships we hope to establish during this week’s visit.
