The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda has signed onto the Global World Postal Strategy that is aimed at reviving, sustaining and growing the postal sector, which is under pressure from the digital revolution. The four-year strategy responds to the current market needs and sets out approaches on how the sector can remain relevant in the communications world.
“Many ask, ‘are postal services still relevant?’ Postal services are not just about letters, stamps, aerogrammes, postcards and small private boxes. It includes delivery of parcels and other articles especially relevant for e-commerce. Trust and confidence in the services is critical,” said Irene Kaggwa Sewankambo, the Executive Director of Uganda Communications Commission.
This new cooperation policy is largely a move toward a holistic strategy focused on postal sector development with larger-scale projects incorporated into national development policies triggering change at national and regional levels, according to the Universal Postal Union, UPU. The strategy also, among other things aims at making its services more visible to its target market, with many people currently seeing it as no longer relevant.
For about two decades, now the Post Office has been slowly losing the communications function to the mobile phone and the email, and more recently, social-media channels, among others. This is because of the low cost of modern communications, the ease of accessing them and the speed.
While the national postal services around the world have billions of dollars in assets, in many countries like Uganda, they are redundant, due to the obsoleteness of their technology. At the UPU Congress concluded on Friday in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Sewankambo led the Ugandan delegation to sign the UPU Act which commits Uganda to the provisions of the strategy.
She says through sharing experiences, ideas and technology, the sector can become useful or relevant again in the communications world again. On the local scene, Sewankambo says the strategy will help to “harness the collaboration achieved between the UCC, Posta Uganda and the ministries of ICT and of Foreign Affairs, and in implementing the strategy.”
At the congress, The UPU recognized Uganda for installing the mail surveillance system, which enabled it to attain a zero level of tolerance with regard to mail violation and mail theft. This resulted in restored customer confidence and improved image of the Post, according to the Union. The system was installed with help from the Quality Service Fund at the UPU, according to the organisation.
“To enable Posts to keep step with the ever-increasing pace of innovation, a significant proportion of funds has been granted to projects relating to the digitalization of postal services and e-commerce,” said the UPU Director General Bishar Abdirahman Hussein.
In his remarks, the Prime Minister of Ivory Coast Patrick Achi spoke about living through the shock of the COVID-19 and the need to bridge the digital divide between the north and the south, noting that Covid 19 has also helped the postal sector to innovate and fit better in the global economy.
“The right strategy is capable of moving the entire industry forward and it pays tribute to Africa’s own distinct qualities. After the pandemic, nothing will be as it was before.” Junsheng MA, Director General of State Post Bureau, said there was a need for the world to join hands to stabilize global supply chains.
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