Nigeria is particularly well positioned to participate in this industry, because its official language is English, and it has a large, fairly well educated, and relatively inexpensive labour force. 7.18.1 Situation Analysis Although the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) global market is estimated to be worth hundreds of billions, lack of a robust framework, security concerns, perceived lack of local skills, etc are among the factors that have prevented Nigerian organizations from participating effectively in, and benefitting from, the BPO opportunity. Therefore, it is important - especially as Government continues to stimulate the creation of jobs - to urgently promote a conducive environment that will enable Nigerian firms to invest in and participate in the global BPO economy. 7.18.2 Objectives i. To develop a globally competitive Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) sector in Nigeria; ii. To facilitate the diversification of the national economy through the development of a vibrant outsourcing sector, including developing an exportoriented ICT product and service delivery industry; iii. To accelerate human resource and ICT infrastructure development to support growth in the outsourcing sector; and iv. To ensure an integrated and coherent effort and coordination between all tiers of Government. 7.18.3 Strategies The Government will: i. Promote human capacity development, as well as an enabling, legal, regulatory, technological, and infrastructural environment for the sustainable development of the outsourcing sector in Nigeria; ii. Ensure that all participants in the outsourcing subsector conform to international standards and best practices; !"#$%&"'()*+(,%'$-.(/(0120( ( ( ,"34(6;(