New fund set up to boost rural postal services
A fund is being set up to help improve postal services in rural areas.
The Universal Service Fund will encourage mail delivery operators to take their services to unserved and under-served areas.
Mr Sammy Kyungu, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Communications, said the fund would be managed by the Communications Commission of Kenya.
Mr Kyungu, who was officiating at the World Postal Day celebrations at a Nairobi hotel, said the fund would supplement operators and cushion them from losses.
The government is also working on a new policy on the postal sector to ensure full benefits of liberalisation were realised, Mr Kyungu said.
Turnover in the sub sector is expected to hit Sh30 billion this year, with the Postal Corporation of Kenya processing over eight million postal articles.
The corporation is currently modernising its operations, targeting full automation of counter services and money transfer systems.
The postmaster-general, Mr Francis Chahonyo, said automation would help in the introduction and expansion of electronic-based products.
The Universal Postal Union studies show that letter volumes worldwide were expected to increase by more than 2 per cent annually through 2005.
Much higher growth rates were predicted in some regions where the potential in areas such as direct mail was still largely untapped.
In a message read on his behalf, Mr Thomas Leavey, the UPU director-general said even though e-mail and e-messaging were replacing personal messages sent as physical items, virtual transactions via the Internet were bringing new business for postal services.
“The growing digital divide between developed and developing countries means that the physical mail network remains indispensable to a very large part of the world’s population,” he said.
