South Africa remains the dominant market in Africa, Mr Ryan said.Ri Pierce-Grove, a technology analyst at Datamonitor, said: "We may see prevailing stereotypes of African countries as universally unstable, corrupt, and technologically limited replaced with a more nuanced, country-specific view."The upbeat forecasts raise the question as to whether Africa can be the new India. It forecasts Botswana will grow from a small base of 100 call centre seats at present to 500 by 2009."While not traditionally a location of choice for serving western customers, sub-Saharan Africa has emerged as a niche market for Western customer services," he will tell the offshore customer management international conference."Botswana, Ghana and Kenya have made headlines with their proactive moves to put themselves on to the business process outsourcing map," he said.Morocco and Tunisia have been successful in attracting Francophone business from French companies, who have fewer options than their English-speaking rivals. It produces 200,000 graduates a year, of whom 80,000 emerge with IT and engineering degrees.Datamonitor forecasts the Egyptian call centre industry will expand more than fourfold from 1,500 seats last year to 7,000 by 2010.Mr Ryan also identifies Botswana, Ghana and Kenya, all formerly part of the British Empire, as growth markets for the English-speaking market. Africa will see the fastest growth in the number of call centre workers of any region between now and the end of the decade, according to the market analysis firm Datamonitor. It expects rapid growth in Western investment in the region after a determined effort by governments and private sector companies to make Africa an outsourcing hotspot.In a speech today, Datamonitor's Peter Ryan - its call centre and outsourcing analyst - will say African countries generally compete on lower prices than Western Europe and North America and not far above those in India."They provide excellent language capabilities and agent sophistication and are on a par with most other popular outsourcing destinations," he will tell an audience in Cairo.Egypt, in particular, impresses Western investors with a mix of "savvy and linguistically talented agents", low costs and the attraction of joining Western companies that already have customer centres there.The consultants AT Kearney recently ranked Egypt No 12 in a list of top offshore outsourcing destinations. One market-maker blamed sellers who bought the stock in a pre-IPO placing at a big discount, with no lock-in period, taking the opportunity to sell at the higher levels.. Could Africa be the next India? British consumers could be as likely to find themselves talking to Cairo as Calcutta by 2010 as Africa continues to grow as a global outsourcing centre, experts claim. By the close, they had dropped to 33p, a 34 per cent discount to the placing price.

The shares listed at 50p after a placing by the broker Beaumont Cornish that raised £19.3m, giving the company a market capitalisation of £152.4m. The broker Collins Stewart reiterated its "buy" recommendation on the shares, along with a target price of 669p. The shares climbed 33.5p to close at 275p.Finally, there was a disappointing first day of dealing on AIM for the uranium producer Brinkley Mining, which is developing prospects in the Karoo province in South Africa. The company was rumoured to be having problems accessing its assets in Peru, which are thought to include one of the biggest copper deposits in the world at the Rio Blanco prospect. Many traders have been bullish on the shares for some time, believing that it is a matter of when, not if, identity cards are introduced in the UK. The shares climbed 20.5p to 106.5p, as traders said a bid could value the shares at up to 115p.Traders took the news that the moderate left-wing candidate, Alan Garcia, appears to have won the general election in Peru as good news for Monterrico Metals. Enodis, the manufacturer of commercial ovens and refrigerators, closed 2.25p better at 202p, with traders predicting a bid this week that is expected to value the shares at 220p.

Meanwhile, the struggling soft drinks manufacturer Britvic, fresh from its second profits warning since coming to the market six months ago, is also expected to face a bid, this time from PepsiCo, at up to 280p per share. Shares in Britvic nudged 7.5p better to 218.75p.The photo booth operator Photo-Me International rallied strongly as it said it was conducting a review that could lead to a sale. The shares succumbed to a late bout of profit-taking to close 4.25p firmer at 331.5p.Two stocks that traders believe are firmly in play for a takeover offer remained well bid yesterday. Insiders said the two men were looking to sell between 450 and 500 million shares through a share placing arranged by PartyGaming's broker, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.Carphone Warehouse was well bid before today's results, as traders took reports that the company is struggling to cope with demand for its "free" broadband as a good sign. Dealers will be keen to hear developments this morning, but the rumour among traders late yesterday was that the unbundling of the local loop, crucial to Carphone Warehouse's strategy, is not going as smoothly as anticipated. The FTSE 100 closed 2.5 weaker at 5,762.1, with the bulk of the support being provided by BP and Royal Dutch Shell, up 2.5p to 636p and 21p to 1,845p respectively on the back of stronger crude oil prices.Shares in PartyGaming fell as speculation intensified that two of the online poker giant's founders would offload up to 500 million shares worth an estimated £600m The shares closed down 4.75p at 122.5p. Anurag Dikshit and Vikrant Bhargava quit the board two weeks ago, raising questions over their stakes in the business.