BY David Wanjala
Advancements in information and communication technologies have created unprecedented challenges to the services sector especially in the developing world. The disruptions that come along have, in some cases, meant complete destruction of existing companies. However, for the resilient, it has only meant seizing the new opportunities that eventually emerge with the paradigm shift.
Since the advent, and spread and penetration of the Internet, traditional postal services including mail and postal financial services have suffered a major blow. To survive the onslaught, postal corporations the world-over have had to morph into new entities to keep up with emerging trends, courtesy of technological advancements.
That the Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) has survived, and found a way of strongly remaining relevant in the present technological dispensation is worth celebrating. Besides the Internet, sector liberalization shortly after Kenya Posts and Telecommunication Corporation (KP&TC) was split into three entities in 1999, has been another hard reality to deal with in PCK’s efforts to survive the changing times. As at June 2013, there were 96 companies registered to offer communication services.
KP&TC was split into Telkom Kenya, responsible for Telecommunication services; Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK), for mail and financial services and; Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) now Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) as the regulator.
With the uncharted, murky waters of competition (from the Internet and other mail companies) and separation from the more viable Telcom, the Postal Corporation’s mail business focused majorly on distribution of four types of mail: administrative, marketing, periodicals and newspaper as private individual’s mail dwindled and picked only seasonally on festive occasions like Christmas or during examinations. With a Smartphone, a Christmas or New Year card is now sent and received in seconds by a click of the button.
To counter the risks and uncertainties of liberalized market and the headwinds of rapid technological advancements that meant gradual but steady erosion of traditional means of communication, the Postal Corporation of Kenya has had to reinvent itself to remain relevant. It is these trends of innovation that the newly nominated Ag Postmaster General, Mr Daniel Kagwe has promised to keep pace with to steer the Corporation into more relevance and success as he settles in office.
Mr Kagwe has worked extensively in the private sector including the financial, courier and logistics industry in Kenya and the wider East Africa region for over 30 years. He has held senior level capacities at Fedex, Henkel Kenya and Diners Club International.
He joined the Postal Corporation of Kenya in March 2013 as director, strategy and business development. Having been appointed Ag CEO on June 21, Kagwe stands out as visionary and one that is cut out for the job. Already, he has created a roadmap for the next three years, 2016 – 2019, that will completely transform the postal and courier industry. Mr Kagwe believes the postal industry today must ride on the vast opportunity presented by technology to reap the immense benefits associated with it. With this in mind, the focus since his appointment has been technological, transformative revolution of Posta Kenya.
Born in Nyeri in 1962, Mr Kagwe is a sports enthusiast and an avid golfer. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics & Business Administration. He also has a diploma in Marketing. He is an associate member of Kenya Institute of Management and Marketing Society of Kenya. It is, however, his vision for Posta Kenya that will count at the end of the day. He knows too well how important it is to leverage technology to stay afloat.
“We have adopted and are rolling out the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. We are also automating every single post office in Kenya from the headquarters to all the 47 counties and we have trained people who will be running the automation. By June 30 2017, the Posta Network will be fully automated countrywide,” he says.
But perhaps the most important indicator yet, that Posta is serious in the scramble for the communication technology pie, is its rolling out of Mpost. In this newest innovation by the Postal Corporation of Kenya, your mobile phone number will become your post office box number.
“Everybody becomes independent of their church, school, or family where they used to get their letters. By the time a child finishes fourth form, he or she should have a box number. The only way to stay relevant is by having a technology that is inclusive. It is the greatest idea that postal office has ever come up with,” says the new CEO.
Mr Kagwe also adds that they have Postal Registered Email (PREM) that will enable you to know when your letter has been received. It sends an alert to the sender confirming that indeed mail has been received and registered online.
Realising that e-commerce is the only survival path for Posta in the emerging new world order, Mr Kagwe reveals just how much the mandarins at the corporation are aware of this. “We have to be major players because of our logistics, our presence worldwide, and our capacity. The opportunities of the Kenyan postal service is immense and relevant since we have the team, the capacity and technology in place. The future is actually in the post. Posta can be a postal hub for e-commerce in Africa,” he says.
The biggest indicator yet that Postal Corporation of Kenya is in the game to stay no matter the new challenges manifests in how serious the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology under which PCK operates has kept tabs at the operations at the corporation. Already, the Cabinet Secretary has appointed a taskforce with specific terms of reference geared towards “rationalisation of the current post office network in Kenya to align with the current trends and new information and communication technologies.”
The taskforce is mandated to, among others, revamp Posta to enable it provide efficient services at national and county levels to ministries, county governments and the private sector; supplement the role of post offices in financial inclusion including insurance products; identify the means to enhance the infrastructure requests of postal network for efficient and efficient and effective service delivery and to make the postal network economically viable.
The mandate also includes the promotion of the implementation of postal strategies as detailed by the Universal postal Union, the global body of which Kenya is a member; recommend the necessary review of policies and strategies aimed at repositioning PCK as a major player in the supply chain; identify the appropriate technological advancement that can strengthen the postal sector including automation; recommend and advise on best practice mechanism of development of a national addressing system and postcode infrastructure; and develop an appropriate means for enabling the country to acquire and use modern mail quality measurement solution for the postal sector.
The taskforce, to have an all-inclusive consultative process, will solicit for input from the public, being key stakeholders. Members of the public and organisations are invited to make written input physically or electronically on the terms of reference mentioned afore to the secretariat by October 8.
