African post services must diversify or die

African postal services must diversify into lucrative businesses like money transfers and direct marketing or lack of government support will force them out of operation, the head of Posta Uganda said last Friday 10 th.

National post organizations are suffering worldwide as volumes of traditional letters fall and more people use e-mails, the Internet and mobile telephones to communicate.

In Africa, many rural post offices are little more than dilapidated shacks. But often they are the only network capable of reaching the majority of the population who live in villages.

Some believe they could also be used to bring new electronic services to millions of customers.

Mobile telephone use has boomed across the world’s poorest continent in the last decade, bringing a new hunger for information and services that national postal organizations are uniquely placed to fulfill, Mulooki added.

The World Bank is working with Posta Uganda to help it eventually offer Internet services and training at many of its 300 post offices. These upgraded centers will also be used for its local and international money transfer business.

Ugandans working overseas are a key plank of the nation’s economy, with estimated remittances doubling in the last seven years to around USD 500 million dollars annually.

Posta Uganda is also looking at using information on its large customer base for direct marketing, or bulk mail deliveries of advertising materials. It is also working with the government and utility providers to update billing systems.

But it is calling for more support from the government, and says that is what is needed across Africa.