If 2020–2023 were the years that proved South Africa’s contact centres could weather disruption, then 2024–2025 have been the years the industry started playing offence.
Across the country – and especially in Cape Town and the Western Cape – the contact centre and BPO sector has shifted from “cost-saving back office” to a strategic export industry, creating tens of thousands of jobs and drawing serious attention from global brands.
At the same time, 2025 has brought new headwinds: tightening global regulations, the rise of AI, and shifting expectations from overseas clients. For South African operators, this has created a simple choice: compete on price alone, or compete on quality, transparency, and insight.
How big is South Africa’s BPO story in 2025?
There is growing consensus that South Africa’s BPO and Global Business Services (GBS) sector is no longer niche.
According to Business Process Enabling South Africa (BPESA), the industry continues to show strong, sustained growth:
- 20,518 net new international-servicing GBS jobs were created in 2024
- A further 8,180 international jobs were added in Q2 2025 alone
- Approximately 90% of new hires are youth (aged 18–34)
- Export revenue reached approximately US$328 million in 2024
- The sector remains on track to reach 500,000 international-servicing jobs by 2030
Beyond BPESA’s official reporting, industry analysts and development bodies estimate that South Africa’s broader BPO ecosystem has expanded significantly since 2019, with total employment and revenue both increasing multiple-fold over the past five years.
According to DevelopmentAid Africa’s BPO market is valued at ± US$8.85 billion in 2025, with South Africa leading the continent and holding ± 42.5% market share (± US$3.76 billion).
Data published by the Western Cape Government states that:
- The Western Cape accounts for ± 60% of South Africa’s BPO output, with the provincial BPO sector valued at ± US$1.9 billion in 2024 and growing at ± 10.1% per year – significantly faster than global averages. Western Cape Government
- From April 2024 to March 2025, more than 10,400 new BPO jobs were created in Cape Town alone, a major boost in a single financial year. Invest Cape Town
While these figures vary by source and methodology, the direction of travel is clear:
South Africa has firmly established itself as a leading global BPO destination
What changed in 2025?
- From cheap seats to complex service
The stereotype of African outsourcing as “basic voice work at low cost” is increasingly out of date. South African contact centres now support:
- End-to-end customer journeys, not just individual calls
- Multilingual, multi-channel environments (voice, chat, email, social)
- Supporting industries like fintech, healthcare, e-commerce, and utilities
This evolution has raised the bar for quality, compliance, and performance measurement. Managing this level of complexity is no longer feasible with manual QA processes that review only a small sample of interactions.
2. A serious jobs engine for youth and inclusive growth
BPO remains one of the few sectors consistently creating new formal employment at scale — particularly for young people.
BPESA data shows that the majority of new international roles created in 2024 and 2025 were filled by youth, supported by large-scale investment in training, onboarding, and skills development.
As a result, the BPO sector has become more than a cost-efficient outsourcing option. It is now a strategic lever for youth employment, digital skills development, and export-led growth.
3. Rising expectations for customer experience
Global brands now expect their partners to deliver more than SLAs and handle time. They want:
- Demonstrable customer experience improvements (CSAT, first-contact resolution etc)
- Data-driven performance management, not just anecdotal coaching
- Near real-time insight into what customers are saying and where processes break
That’s where technology like speech analytics, AI-assisted QA, and voice-of-customer platforms have become non-negotiable, especially in high-volume environments.
Regulation, AI and the “Keep Call Centers in America” era
2025 hasn’t been all smooth sailing. One of the most closely watched developments this year has been the proposed Keep Call Centres in America Act of 2025 in the United States. This is still a bill, but with potential real implications for global BPO.
If passed in its current form, the act would require companies to offshore more than 30% of customer service roles or pay heavy fines for non-compliance with disclosure and reporting requirements. This act will require offshore agents to disclose their location to U.S. consumers and transfer callers to a U.S-based agent on request. Companies will also be placed on a public list that could restrict access to federal grants and contracts if they don’t comply.
Even if the bill takes time to progress, it signals a clear shift: regulators are paying very close attention to how and where customer service is delivered, and how AI is used in that process.
For South African contact centres and BPOs, this has several consequences:
- Compliance and transparency become differentiators. Providers who can prove that the right disclosures are made on every interaction, not just a sampled few, will have an edge.
- AI use must be monitored and documented. As AI-assisted agents, bots, and QA tools become common, clients will expect verifiable evidence that AI is being used responsibly and lawfully.
- Market diversification matters. While the U.S. remains a critical market, South African providers are increasingly serving the UK, Europe, and Australia as well – spreading regulatory and geopolitical risk. Invest Africa
South Africa is still winning
Despite these risks, South Africa’s fundamentals remain strong:
- Cost and value: Providers can deliver high-quality services at materially lower cost than many onshore markets, without compromising outcomes
- Talent and culture: Strong English proficiency, neutral accents, and cultural alignment with Western markets
- Time zone and infrastructure: Overlapping business hours with Europe and mature telecoms infrastructure in key hubs
These strengths continue to underpin South Africa’s position as a preferred destination for global contact centre and BPO operations.
Turning growth into measurable performance
Growth is great. But growth without insight is risky, especially in a year where regulators, clients, and consumers are all asking tougher questions.
For South African contact centres and BPOs, 2025 is the year where “trust us” stopped being enough. You have to show:
- That required disclosures (location, AI use, consent) are actually being made
- That vulnerable customers are treated fairly and consistently
- That quality and compliance are measured across all conversations, not a tiny sample
- That your multi-language workforce is delivering a consistent experience, whether the call is in English, isiXhosa, Afrikaans, Zulu, or any other language
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Looking ahead: 2026 and beyond
By the end of 2025, South Africa’s contact centre and BPO sector will likely be:
- Larger and more complex than ever
- More regulated and scrutinised
- More central to youth employment and export earnings
The providers who thrive will be those who:
- Embrace AI and analytics to improve quality and compliance, not just efficiency
- Invest in skills and career paths for agents, supervisors, and analysts
- Build trusted, data-driven relationships with global clients, backed by hard evidence from their customer interactions
Embrace analytics to help you grow in 2026
Conclusion
In an environment where regulations like the Keep Call Centers in America Act are pushing for more transparency and documentation, we need a safety net that protects growth.
Using AI-driven speech analytics tailored for South African contact centres and BPOs could:
- Analyse 100% of recorded calls
- Track compliance at scale, from mandatory scripts and disclosures to vulnerable customer handling
- Identify performance patterns, coaching opportunities, and process failures based on real conversations
- Surface customer themes fast enough to matter to operations, not just to the quarterly board pack
Callbi are excited to continue partnering with South African contact centres and BPOs as they make this shift, from “hidden cost centre” to visible, measurable driver of customer experience, compliance, and growth.
Please contact us here to find out more about growing in 2026.
Footnotes and Sources
- BPESA (Business Process Enabling South Africa) is the official industry body representing South Africa’s Global Business Services (GBS) and BPO sector. BPESA publishes quarterly and annual reports on international job creation, export revenue, training investment, and sector targets under the national GBS Master Plan.
- All specific job-creation, youth employment, export revenue, and 2030 target figures in this article are drawn from public BPESA reports and statements (2024–2025).
- References to broader market size, total ecosystem employment, and Africa-wide trends are based on industry commentary and third-party analysis and are included as contextual indicators rather than audited statistics.