IN an effort to reinvigorate what he sees as the declining economy of Black River in St Elizabeth, Alanso McKoy, entrepreneur and owner of cable company Future Telecommunications Ltd, is constructing Mint Technologies, a 22,000-square-foot business complex specifically designed to host business process outsourcing (BPO) enterprises.

McKoy is not aiming to operate a BPO company himself but is instead engaged with a BPO operator that intends to lease 11,000 square feet of the property situated less than a minute’s drive from the town centre.

“We don’t really want to take on the day-to-day management of a BPO,” McKoy explained.

“It takes a lot of work and a lot of supervision. That is the route that I am advised to go based on how demanding the space is.”

The businessman sees his project as a socially committed, mission-driven endeavour.

“This project wasn’t about money,” he insisted. “It was really done with the situation in Black River and surrounding areas in mind where there are no jobs and Black River is a town that is dying at an alarming rate. There is no [National] Water commission, and JPS moved. Two banks within the past two years have closed down [their branches]. The only bank down there right now is Sagicor. So in the town and surrounding community, people are actually looking elsewhere to move — to Kingston, to Montego Bay — to seek employment.”

Nevertheless, McKoy believes that the town and its surrounding communities possess characteristics that would be advantageous to a BPO operation. Multiple high schools in and around Black River and as far as Savanna-la-mar in the neighbouring parish of Westmoreland are turning out young people with the required base level of education to work in the BPO industry, he points out.

“All those schools are within half an hour to 45 minutes drive from Black River,” McKoy stated. “So in terms of actual talent or work talent, I don’t think Black River is short of that. Even in Montego Bay and Kingston, a lot of these workers at the BPOs are from these areas that I just mentioned — St Elizabeth as a whole. And so we looked at it and said even some of them who are working [in the cities] right now, if they know that there’s a BPO in their community or close to their home, they’ll come back home.”

He added that his cable company, which is based in nearby Southfield and provides cable and Internet to the entire south of St Elizabeth, makes Black River an ideal location for this initiative.

It has not all been smooth sailing; however, there have been a number of delays which have pushed back the handover time to the potential client who currently runs a BPO operation in India.

“So we are hoping that by completion time they have not settled in with anybody [else],” he said. “What we don’t want to do is go back to them with another deadline and then that deadline passes again and we’re not complete.”

The entrepreneur informed, however, that through the Jamaica Promotions Corporation (Jampro) and the involvement of the Member of Parliament for the area, a plan B is very much in place to source another client if the deal is not realised. Jampro is also working to source BPO operators for the additional space on the property, according to McKoy.

“When we started speaking with [the client] we were only offering 1,100 square feet,” he explained. “But after construction we realised that we can go up another floor in which we can maximise that space…so we put on another floor with the same amount of square footage.”

Construction is expected to be completed by November and McKoy revealed that he is already being bombarded with inquiries from enthusiastic residents of the community and nearby areas.

“I have been at the site and you know people drive on there just excited wanting to know when we start hiring,” he said. “They heard about job fair and all that stuff, so we have to assure them that once we start, or once we reach the point where we need to do the job fair, everybody will hear of it [and] it will be a public thing.”

McKoy sees this enthusiasm as validation that Mint Technologies can be an instrument of change to bring about a positive social impact in the area.

“The services that we are offering and the intention of this BPO, I think it will succeed in Black River — and we hope that it will bring other people to want to come back and do business in Black River,” he expressed.