Postal Services: Learning from Kenyan experience

The Prime Minister, Head of Government, Philemon Yang has instructed the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Mrs. Minette Libom Li Likeng, to plan a visit in the near future to the Republic of Kenya and benchmark the successful functioning of the country’s One-Stop Shops in posts offices for all government services.

The disclosure was made to the press on July 25, 2016 at the Star Building by the Secretary General of the Pan-African Postal Union (PAPU), Younouss Djibrine, at the end of an audience Philemon Yang granted to the Director General of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), Kenyan-born Bishar A. Hussein.

The UPU boss paid the courtesy visit after participating in the 9th Ordinary Session of the Conference of Ministers of PAPU that ended in Yaounde on July 23, 2016. “We discussed the need for posts offices to host One-Stop Shops for all government services so that people do not go to different government ministries for services which can be carried out in one place.

We have seen this in Kenya and it is a good experience,” Bishar Hussein also told the press. He said he briefed the Prime Minister on how the post office can help improve and play a key role in the attainment of sustainable development objectives.

Even though the volume of mail transactions has considerably dropped, the emergence of e-posting and e-commerce offers opportunities for the renaissance of the sector. It allows citizens to send and receive goods and money through the dense postal network now interconnected nationally by a modern Data Centre and globally by over 700,000 posts offices employing more than seven million people.

More so, financial services offered by the postal network could help secure financial inclusion for over 80 per cent of the population not yet using the services of traditional commercial banks. “The postal network’s role is key in reducing financial and digital divide in society,” added Younouss Djibrine, who alongside the Mrs Minette Libom Li Likeng, accompanied the UPU boss to the Star building.