Due to the economic crisis in Lebanon, thousands of companies closed their doors which left tens of thousands of Lebanese people without any revenue even for basic needs, and what made the situation worst was the COVID-19 pandemic which stopped any revenue for many Lebanese families. Besides, corruption, the Beirut explosion, illegal weapons, and the political situation make the Lebanese currency lose its value which put many Lebanese people under the poor line.
In addition to all these situations:
- Electricity cutter (1-2 hours per day on the best days),
- And its circumstances on the Internet made ICT sectors in a critical situation,
- Transportation is very expensive compared to employee income.
All these challenges created many opportunities in ICT sectors, especially in this booming era of AI and Digital Transformation:
- Availability of thousands of resources seeking jobs.
- Low salaries in USD compared to the salaries before the crisis (expert programmer salary starting from 300$ while it was 1500$).
- COVID-19 created new employment rules and made remote employment preferable.
- Lebanese diaspora especially created many outsourcing opportunities.
Outsourcing Hubs project is a solution for both local ICT resources and outsourcing companies to work in a sustainable ecosystem consisting of:
- Shared offices for developers/resources to work with outsourced companies.
- Infrastructure Availability (mainly Electricity & Internet).
- Marketing team to communicate local resources with inside/outside companies.
- Expert team for support.
- Training & Coaching for fresh graduates and resources.
We plan to start with an Outsourcing Hub in Tripoli and then it will be replicated in every geographic location having enough resources around. From a sustainability perspective, operation costs will be covered by both beneficiaries: resources and companies subscriptions.