Tag: Kenya

Papu: Postal union for rural services

Posted by | Sep 13, 2007 | |

PAN African Postal Union (Papu) has urged postal service providers to concentrate on developing more operations in rural areas on the continent where there is little or no availability of advanced communication.

The appeal was made yesterday in Blantyre by Papu’s Assistant Secretary General Rhoda Masaviru during the official opening of the fourth African Support Committee to the organisation of the congress of Universal Postal Union (UPU) to be held in Kenya in 2008.

Masaviru said the success of the congress in Nairobi would depend on the strategies to be adopted on the current challenges that range from revenue, terminal dues to mail dispatch.

In her opening remarks Minister of Information Patricia Kaliati urged all participating countries to ensure that the agenda of the UPU congress reflects training for postal personnel including maximizing access to rural masses.

She added that the current meeting must come up with factual and practical objectives ahead of the meeting in Kenya that should see Africa making progress in the sector for the next four years after 2008.

Over 30 African countries that include Ghana, Nigeria Tanzania, Rwanda, Botswana, Zimbabwe are attending the meeting in Blantyre which is expected to wind up today.

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UPU regional round table on the future World Postal Strategy

Posted by | Jul 19, 2007 | |

“This plan gives us hope for the future of the postal business as the postal service remains the most important means of communication for the majority of the population,” said Norman Munzhelele of the South African Ministry of Communication, at the close of the second UPU regional round table on the future World Postal Strategy, which took place on 18 and 19 July in Nairobi, Kenya, host city of the 2008 UPU Congress.

As was the case during the first round table held in St. Petersburg in June, the more than 30 African countries attending this UPU regional round table gave the green light to the proposed framework for the 2009–2012 World Postal Strategy.

The round table was organized in cooperation with the Pan African Postal Union (PAPU).

The future strategy, which will be presented for adoption at the 2008 Nairobi Congress, is built around three main objectives, including network interconnectivity, postal sector governance and economic and market development.

Countries underlined the importance of access to universal service for all, and the single postal territory. They expressed appreciation for the UPU’s Development Plan for Africa and other UPU development cooperation activities in the region, but stressed the importance of equal opportunities for all countries without any discrimination. These views were strongly supported by UPU Director General Edouard Dayan.

Five more similar round tables will be organized in various regions of the world from now to December. The next one will take place in Montevideo, Uruguay, on 3 September.

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Kenya Post moves into global money transfer business

Posted by | Jul 19, 2007 | |

The Postal Corporation of Kenya is digging in for a piece of the growing money transfer business to turn around its fortunes.

Mr Fred Omondi, the post master general, said the corporation had picked on money transfer as the turnaround programme it needs to overcome challenges that providers of similar services are facing globally and remain in business.

“Initially, we only need to control three per cent of the total remittances to remain in business,” he said. With the remittances estimated to have hit the Sh70 billion mark last year, controlling one per cent of the business would see the corporation handle Sh700 million, earning it not less than Sh100 million.

The drive for a marketshare kicked off in the United States last week with aggressive marketing of the company’s electronic money transfer system called Postapay.

The initiative comes at a time when the corporation is facing stiff competition in the money transfer market, with the launch by the country’s two mobile operators Safaricom and Celtel of SMS-based money transfer services.

Competition in the courier market that has been the main revenue earner for the company has also intensified, following the entry of more than 100 players, reducing its marketshare to five per cent.

Other than targeting foreign remittances, PCK has put aside Sh150 million for value added services that it intends to roll-out.

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Africa gears up to host the next Universal Postal Congress

Posted by | Jul 17, 2007 | |

Edouard Dayan Director General of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), and the Honourable Mutahi Kagwe, Kenya’s Minister for Information and Communication, today signed an agreement which marks another milestone in the preparations for the 24th Universal Postal Congress, to be hosted by the Kenyan Government and Posta Kenya in Nairobi from 13 August to 3 September 2008. The agreement defines the detailed requirements for Congress.

The Universal Postal Congress, held every four years, is the supreme authority of the Union, bringing together the UPU’s 191 member countries.

A UPU regional round table on the future world postal strategy will also take place in Nairobi starting tomorrow. It is being held with the help of the Pan African Postal Union (PAPU), which brings together 43 countries from across the African continent. The round table – the second in a series of seven being organized by the UPU in collaboration with different regional postal bodies – is designed to gather regional views on the 2009-2012 World Postal Strategy, to be adopted next year in Nairobi.

At Congress, member countries will be invited to sign up to this four-year roadmap, designed to pave the future direction of the postal sector as a whole. It is built around three key strands: improving postal systems’ interoperability through solid UPU international standards, thus strengthening the physical, electronic and financial dimensions of the worldwide postal network, reinforcing postal sector governance, and developing markets and economies.

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Kenyan minister says African postal services too inefficient

Posted by | Jul 16, 2007 | |

African postal services are under obligation to modernise and diversify or succumb to competition from the private investors, Kenya’s assistant Minister for Information and Communication, Koigi Wamwere, said here Monday.

Koigi was speaking where he presided over the opening of the 25th Ordinary Session of the Administration Council of Pan-African Postal Union taking place here.

The minister said the largely inefficient postal organisations should take advantage of their networks, which have a wider reach, to roll out products based on modern technology in the telecommunications industry.

He told the postal service providers to change their business culture to repulse the onslaught mounted by private postal services providers.

However, Kenya Postal Corporation postmaster-general Fred Odhiambo welcomed increased competition, saying the beneficiary would be the consumer.

Odhiambo said increased private service providers on the continent were a boon to the consumers who were reaping the fruits of modern technology and efficient services.

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