Senegal woos investors with Africa's best telecoms

DAKAR, June 23 (Reuters) The first thing Djibril Niang does when he gets to work in Senegal's capital is check the weather in Paris.

After that he scours French news sites on the Internet, then calls his first client in Marseille or maybe Bordeaux, introduces himself as 'Claude', and starts talking about the latest offer from one of France's top cell phone companies.

Niang works for Center Value, one of Senegal's growing army of call centres employed by French companies to sell mobile phones, bank accounts and even cars over the phone from the capital of this West African country.

With some of the best telecommunications on the continent, plenty of cheap labour, strong historic links with France and relative political stability, Senegal is increasingly taking on Morocco and Tunisia in the battle for the French call centre outsourcing market.

''This industry creates a lot of jobs, and it's an area where we can compete thanks to low labour costs,'' Senegal's Communications Minister Joseph Ndong told Reuters this week.

Senegal's big draw card is its telecommunications -- excellent by African standards and often cited as a model for a continent where expensive and unreliable phone and Internet connections often serve as extra deterrents for investors.

FAST GROWTH Senegal privatised fixed-line operator Sonatel, which is now part-owned by France Telecom, in 1997 -- way before most African countries -- and is about to invite bids for a second fixed licence that will include a mobile and data component.

Access to the SAT-3 international undersea cable makes for fast Internet access and cheaper voice over Internet calls, while the government offered tax breaks to call centre investors and has pushed Sonatel to cut call tariffs.

London-based research group Datamonitor says Senegal had 3,000 call centre agent positions in 2005 but expects that to grow to 5,000 within three years -- still small compared to outsourcing giants like India, but growing fast.

South Africa, Botswana and Kenya are also trying to build cell centre hubs and analysts say other African countries could do the same if they dismantled their telecom monopolies and offered the right incentives.

''Senegal is making the right moves in terms of telecoms liberalisation and this isn't lost on investors in French-speaking countries,'' said Peter Ryan, call centre analyst at Datamonitor.

Because educated Senegalese do not have a strong local accent, call agents pass as French, averting some of the backlash that British firms experienced from customers over the trend of basing call centres in India.

Center Value's General Manager Roland Laoualy does all he can to make his agents sound French -- providing daily tips on the weather and rigorous training in French culture and society.

''Whether you are calling from Hong Kong, Paris or Dakar there is one thing that counts -- making a sale,'' he said. ''To do that we have to make sure cultural differences don't get in the way.'' REUTERS PV HS1531