Tag: Botswana

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.

The Minister of Communications, Science and Technology Mrs Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi is expected to officially open a two-day National Postal Policy stakeholders consultative seminar in Gaborone.

The purpose of the seminar is to solicit public views on the policy. The ministry says in a press release that the development of the event follows public concerns that the lack of a policy hampers service delivery and infrastructure development.

Consequently, the draft policy will interrogate the need to define a structure for governments vision in terms of service provision in the postal sector.

The ministry says the digital age is believed to have had adverse affects on the role and function of the postal services throughout the world and Botswana is no exception.

The introduction of electronic communication services, such as the Internet, e-mails and SMS messages, has impacted negatively on postal services.

However, it says, the postal service remains an essential tool in delivery of goods in this era of e-commerce, in exchange of information, particularly to the underserved communities countrywide.

In line with Vision 2016 objectives and the draft National ICT Policy, the ministry says, Botswana Post can be used as a platform to effectively reach out to the communities countrywide, as it has the facilities and experience to provide universal services.

In addition, it says Botswana Posts postal network can be used to house Kitsong Centres which are community communication and business centres.

The release further states that in many cases, post offices also serve as banking outlets for the Botswana Savings Banks and that many Batswana use them to remit money to their kith and kin around the country or the Western Union to transact money outside the country.