TUNIS, 8 June 2006 — Seated before a computer screen in a small, busy room in North Africa, Fatma Khalfallah asks the Frenchman at the other end of the telephone line whether he would like to receive a free catalog of frozen meals. Khalfallah’s new job at the Maghreb Call Center (M2C) in Tunisia’s capital has opened a window on the future for the 26-year-old, who had been unable to find work despite holding a degree in finance and a master’s in quality management.
“I chose to be a telemarketer to escape unemployment instead of wasting time and waiting at home for a miracle to happen,” she said. French IT firms keen to lower their payroll costs are piling into former colony Tunisia, which offers political stability, low overheads and a growing army of well-educated young people desperate for employment.
The government says there were 49,000 university graduates in 2005, up from just 3,600 in the early 1980s, and the number is expected to jump to 300,000 by 2009.
France is Tunisia’s top foreign trading partner and investor, and most Tunisians learn French from the age of seven, emerging from school with the fluency and flawless accents needed to sell insurance, phone lines or apartments to even the most reluctant customers.
As a result, more than 40 call centers have sprung up in the country of 10 million, absorbing 5,000 job seekers. After a brief flirtation with socialism in the 1960s, Tunisia has welcomed foreign investors to boost growth and fight unemployment.
Over the past decade, foreign investment has created an average of 260,000 jobs a year. The basic salary at the Maghreb Call Center is 450 Tunisian dinars ($343) per month, while the French minimum wage is over 1,200 euros ($1,545).
The agents at the call center work for eight hours a day, logging up to 250 calls, with a 15-minute break every two hours. “It’s obvious the work in a call center is so stressful, but better to suffer than to die,” says Khalfallah. “I’m satisfied with my job and I want to progress.”
“Before, I saw the call center work as just a way to get some pocket money,” says employee Mustapha Nehdi. “But now I’m keen to have a good career in this field, which should develop strongly in the coming years.”
Some experts predict major growth in Africa’s call center industry thanks to cheap labor, good language skills and time zones that chime with Western Europe. In research published this month, London-based market analysis firm Datamonitor said the number of call center agent positions in North Africa — which includes Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia — would triple by 2010 to around 23,000.
At the Maghreb Call Center, there are plans to expand. Set up in 2004, the center — a subsidiary of French company USDI — has recruited 30 to 35 people, two-thirds of whom have some higher education and one-third of whom hold a degree. It aims to expand the workforce to 150 in the next three years.
Creating jobs is a priority in Tunisia. According to government data, unemployment stands at 13.9 percent, with university graduates accounting for 60 percent of the jobless. The government is targeting annual growth of 6.3 percent over the next decade to trim the jobless rate to 10 percent.
“Call centers have given the country a much needed shot in the arm,” says Majdi Ben Mleh, in charge of staff training at M2C. “They help lure more foreign investment and alleviate the unemployment burden.”
Likening human resources to raw materials, M2C manager Mourad Berrageh says the key quality in a potential call center agent is not knowledge but the human touch.
“Call centers ... create jobs for people with different levels of instruction and deal with various sectors — banking, property, services,” he said.
The staff of M2C say the benefits are many - friendly office, enriching experience, good salary, and security. “I don’t risk unemployment while working in a call center,” says supervisor Baddreddine Ouhibi. “It’s an insurance for tomorrow.”
