Over 30 000 jobs have been created by the Business Process Services (BPS) Incentive Scheme, the Department of Trade and Industry (dti) said recently.

The objective of the BPS scheme is to create employment opportunities, particularly for the young people of South Africa, through servicing offshore activities.

“To achieve this, we have created more than 30 000 jobs by supporting 43 companies through the BPS at a cost of almost R1 billion. About 86% of the jobs are for the youth,” said the dti’s Chief Operating Officer for Incentives Administration, Susan Mangole.

Briefing members of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, Mangole said the jobs had been created since the scheme’s inception in 2011. The Portfolio Committee visited one of the beneficiaries of the scheme, Conduent, a company which is based in Sandton, Johannesburg.

The Parliamentary Committee was on a two-day oversight visit to companies that had received funding from the dti. Addressing Members of Parliament at the company’s premises, Conduent’s Senior General Manager, Jim Beatie, said his company was grateful for the support provided by the department.

Conduent, one of the largest business process services companies in the world, was funded by the dti for more than R10 million in a project that would create 1 600 jobs over a five-year period. Mangole said the BPS industry, which had been identified by government through the Industrial Policy Action Plan as one of the country’s key job drivers, had been growing at an average of 26% annually since 2011.