Botswana: Postal Policy Should Glean From Neighbours – Minister
A recent postal policy consultative conference resolved that a tenable postal sector policy is what the people of Botswana need now.
This decision by stakeholders at the conference was arrived at after it was discovered that Botswana does not have a specific postal sector policy that takes into account developments in the postal sector worldwide and in the country itself.
According to a statement from BotswanaPost, "for this reason, some developments have occurred without guidance from (a) sector policy, causing increasing problems on the continued provision of universal postal services and upgrading of the provision of commercial postal services."
The meeting, which brought together chiefs from all over the country, business people and courier services providers, among others, was also seen as an opportunity by BotswanaPost to relay to the people the findings of a consultant who was tasked with coming up with a legal and regulatory framework, a postal sector policy, a postal strategy and business planning.
According to the consultant, Hans Kok of Hans Kok Business Consult BV in Holland, the Botswana Postal Services Act Number 22 of 1989 has little value for current practices because it deals mainly with corporate powers of BotswanaPost and not with policy issues.
Hans also argued that with more postal operators, there was need for regulation, hence a new policy was urgently needed to address all relevant topics of today's postal market in Botswana.
During his project, the consultant held meetings and interviews with large mail customers of the Public Postal Operator.
He also took the opportunity to meet with postal sector operators and visited 32 locations in Botswana where he held interviews with BotswanaPost post office staff and local government and Kgotla representatives.
From the market survey, it was concluded that "Botswana Post customers are faced with shortages of P.O. boxes in densely- populated locations, leading to an unfulfilled demand for services. Postal customers, especially in the countryside, experience problems in ongoing price increases of P.O. Box and postal bag services and those communities in the country are striving for establishment of a postal service point, where as a great number of the current post offices is considered loss-making."
The Minister of Communications, Science and Technology Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, who was the guest speaker at the conference, said "a policy structure was befitting in that it will go a long way."
Other warning shots pointed to the fact that before implementing the Postal Sector Policy Act, the regulator must have the capacity to license and monitor but not over-regulate, and that Government must (recognise) the current challenges facing the public operator and the required investments.
In the development of the postal sector policy, the goal of the Government of Botswana is to reform and develop the postal sector to cope with the socio-economic and technical changes and increase response to market needs while ensuring access to basic postal services by all citizens and guarantee the provision of the same at acceptable costs and high quality.
According to a press brief from the organisers, "the vision underlying the Postal Sector Policy is to develop modern postal services which will contribute to the social and economic development of Botswana as well as to ensure continued universal service provision. This is anchored within the framework of the Long-term Vision for Botswana: Towards Prosperity For All (Vision 2016).
By and large, the policy objectives include to: ensure meeting of unfulfilled demand, improvement of quality of services, maximising of network capacity, deregulation of the postal market and strengthening the policy management and regulatory role of government. It also includes stimulation of investment, elimination of cross subsidies and increasing private sector development and use of technology.
