The explosive growth of the
communications market has forced many postal administrations to move beyond the
core, physical mail business says the Post Master General of the Federation, Mallam
Ibrahim Mori Baba.
Speaking at the 5th ITEdge
West Africa Convergence forum in Lagos, last weekend, while dwelling on ‘The
Impact of ICT on Postal Operations and the Future of the Postal Sector’ he said
that postal administrations globally have realized they have to fight for the
postal business.
“… Not only with competitors for
physical mail, but also, with the providers of new electronic communications
products that have no national borders,” he declared.
He pointed out that they
are now diversifying in order to broaden the range of services offered to
customers.
“Today, we have a number of
hybrid postal products which combine electronics with hard copy delivery,” he
said, noting that for the Postal sector in a number of countries, technology
has been used as a generator of growth for physical mail.
Adapting technology to
postal operations, he said, has made it easy for them to provide e-based
services as well as track and trace for parcels and registered mail items.
Mori Baba further said that
they have used transportation technology to deliver mail faster to customers,
adding that they have used technology for improvements of their infrastructure,
from postal counters to automation of the postal processing chains.
To this extent, he said
that the future of the postal sector remains bright despite the fact that many
people are still wondering what the future holds for the Postal sector given
the intense competition in the market.
“I dare say that the future
is very bright,” he asserted.
He emphasised that the
digital era no doubt presents enormous challenges and opportunities for the postal
sector and the good thing is that the postal sector in many countries are
partnering with the private sector, governments and corporate bodies to move
the sector to the next level.
He said that radically
changing customer behaviour driven by digital solutions and the ever spiraling
use of the internet are revolutionizing the way in which businesses, governments
and citizens interact.
“The implications of these
changes are several, and include, for example, an imperative for Postal sector
not only to secure the traditional mail business but also to quickly master the
digital world (of 1.75billion internet users and the 1 billion mobile broadband
users) and seize the emerging opportunities,” he observed.
The signs, he said, are
positive as wave of innovative products and practices are emerging; many
examples of diversification away from dependence on the mail already exist.
He said that as broadband
penetration increases and the efficiency of electronic formats is recognized by
both the Postal sector and customers, the time has come for Postal operators to
use their initiative to create products that will bridge the divide between digital
and physical.
According to him, the Post
office is present almost everywhere-even in the remotest corners of many
countries and serves as a key point of access to the outside world, especially
for billions of people who are yet to have access to the Internet.
Its doors are open to all,
without discrimination, making it a fundamental phenomenon, a force for
integration. Today, the Post office is
so much more than the place you go to send or receive a letter or parcel; it is
also a hub for electronic and financial services.
“Access to new information
and communication technologies also means the ability to send a confidential
electronic message securely and provides a means of receiving parcels
containing goods ordered over the Internet,” he submitted.
Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
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