East Africa could become one of the the world’s leading business process outsourcing (BPO) centres, organisers of the just-ended Kenya Information Technology (IT) Week have said.

More than 100 senior executives representing the region's largest enterprises and government organisations gathered for the event that Tejpal Bedi, chairman of Kenya IT and Outsourcing Services (KITOS), officially opened.

Events management firm, Kinetic Events, organised the gathering.

“East Africa is setting itself up as a BPO hub of choice due to the ongoing introduction of data centres as well as significant investment in human capital and infrastructure development,” Marcia van Jaarsveld, marketing specialist at Kinetic Events, said.

BPO is the contracting of a specific business task, such as payroll, to a third-party service provider.

The annual Kenya IT Week provides a get-together for the region's IT leaders to interact.

The 2013 edition served to encourage the development of a sustainable IT industry within East Africa by promoting the region as a favourable BPO destination.

This year's event allowed attendees to gain thorough insight into the practical steps needed to expand the IT talent pool of East African countries to meet increasing demand for IT enabled services.

Kinetic, in partnership with KITOS and the Kenya ICT Authority, formerly the Kenya ICT Board, brought together industry experts from leading organisations to address topical industry challenges.

Meanwhile, Industry providers demonstrated the latest enterprise advancements through focused presentations that covered the central themes on the event agenda, namely, the impact of BPO operations in East Africa, shaping companies’ BPO strategy, enterprise mobility and cloud computing.