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The post office will never die!

IN the past decade, postal businesses worldwide, which were mostly operated by governments, have been increasingly falling under pressure from new innovations and technologies. Until very recently, it had generally been agreed that like the newspaper print business, which has also been hit by new innovations, the post office is dying as the letter — traditionally its flagship business — has been replaced by e-platforms. But in this interview with the Zimbabwe Independent, Maxwell Chitendeni (MC, pictured), acting postmaster-general at Zimpost, tells Mthandazo Nyoni (MN), our business editor that this notion is incorrect. The post office will never die. In fact, there has been an exponential growth in volumes in the past year, making it imperative for Zimpost to consolidate its operations. The firm will be scouting for about US$13 million to recapitalise its ageing fleet, says Chitendeni. Find below excerpts of their discussion:

MN: Some people are saying the post office is dying. It has been overtaken by new technologies. Is this what you are seeing?

MC: There is a general notion that the post office is dying, and that letters have been replaced by the e-platforms. This perception is not correct. We, however, acknowledge that the coming in of technology has impacted on postal business, both positively and negatively. This can be a debate for another day. However, if we look closely at the postal sector the world over, you will notice that mail volumes are actually on the increase in this day and age. The ordinary letter volumes have been replaced by parcels and small packets through the e-commerce banner. These trends increased exponentially due to the Covid -19 pandemic induced lockdowns.

Technology has, to a large extent, enhanced the way we do business as the post office.

For example, one is now able to use eplatforms to search, view and purchase a merchandise online and at the end of it all, the physical delivery of that merchandise still needs to be done. This is where the post office comes in to provide the last mile delivery.

MN: Tell us how you have done this as Zimpost?

MC: Zimpost has remained alive due to these trends. It has embarked on a revenue diversification drive. The company has also remained afloat due to organisational restructuring, postal network optimisation, improving people capabilities (skilling, performance-based culture).

As Zimbabwe’s designated postal operator, Zimpost has been mandated with a universal obligation to ensure that it brings digitalisation to everyone in the country. This is being achieved through the, ‘smart post office concept’.

Zimpost, the Ministry of ICT, Postal and Courier Services, in partnership with the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) through the Universal Service Fund (USF) have provided community information centres and community village information centres (CICs & CVICS) in all districts of the country, which are managed by Zimpost.

The centres are resourced with ICT gadgets and free bandwidth to ensure that all Zimbabweans have access to technology and the internet. The smart or digital post office envisages CICs becoming the ‘Phygital’ (both physical and digital in one) innovation centres for e-content development and e-solutions (telemedicine, e-learning, e-trade, doctor-on-demand, e-climate, e-environment, e-judiciary).

MN: Please explain more about the concept of virtual post office.

MC: Zimpost also has the virtual post office, which is a market place or a virtual window to visit the post office virtually. Through the smart post office concept, we have introduced post money — the new emoney in town and the next big thing in Zimbabwe.

It facilitates pensioners and government services, online-payments, domestic and international remittances over the mobile of any network.

We are privileged to have launched an online mall called Zimbabwe Mall. It is an online store offering a supermarket of physical, digital, postal, retail, financial and government self-services around the clock throughout the year, allowing for the last mile delivery of the physical items, on consumer points. The company is also working on the integrated front&-backend platform, which will connect Zimpost with its strategic partners in real time.

The company is also developing a mobile app to complement all the post echannels to connect with everyone, everywhere, anytime, throughout the year, allowing the post to do electronic, mobile and social commerce.

MN: Who of your services is driving your revenue?

MC: Zimpost revenue is mostly driven by mail, freight and logistics services. The volumes are emanating from online shopping, where Zimpost offers last mile delivery service.

MN: You also do agency financial services, right?

MC: Yes. Zimpost has also been offering agency financial services on behalf of a number of financial institutions to ensure that no one and no place is left behind. Zimpost has sub post offices as part of its branch network, where postal services are offered by a third party, who has been trained by Zimpost. This is to ensure that Zimpost products and services are available even in remote areas.

MN: Mail, freight and logistics contribute how much to your revenue?

MC: The percentage contribution of mail, freight and logistics is 23% of total revenue. E-commerce falls under the mail, freight and logistics revenue cardinal.

Under mail freight, we have the express mail service, domestic letters, parcels, small packets, registers, the freight logistics and the freight cargo.

Zimpost is doing last mile delivery for online purchases and we are in serious discussions with major online providers to have Zimpost also as a delivery option for products as well as engaging them to warehouse their wares.

MN: What is your outlook for the current year in terms of freight volumes?

MC: In terms of volumes, we have seen an increase of 13% from what the company carried last year. But we are coming from a situation where our vehicle fleet is ageing, and this is why we are in the process of resuscitating our fleet. We are also looking for funding to procure new vehicles in order to enable us to compete with other courier service providers

MN: Roughly how much are you looking for?

MC: Ideally Zimpost would require funding to the tune of about US$13 million to recapitalise our fleet.

MN: How about mail volumes?

MC: Mail volumes range from three to four million items annually. This is mainly mail from corporates. However, most of our mail is incoming compared to outgoing mail.

We are excited as Zimpost to have been given this mandate by the government to ensure that we deliver the ‘Smart Post Office’ to the communities. We want to ensure that communities have access to postal and financial services at their doorstep, through Zimpost.

MN: I understand that you have a programme of training communities on ICTs. Can you tell us more about this programme?

MC: Zimpost has developed a training programme for communities, which is currently being reviewed by the parent ministry and the regulator.

The company is set to embark on a ‘train the trainer’ programme for its staff manning these CICs and CVICs so that they are able to train communities in basic computer skills.

Zimpost will work with community leaders to organise people into various groups for training at the community information centres at the nearest post office for free. We believe that such training will empower communities to be able to utilise the CICs and CVICs that the government of Zimbabwe has availed at their doorsteps.

We also believe that this is an important component towards the attainment of national Vision 2030.

IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW

en-zw

2023-05-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-05-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://alphamedia.pressreader.com/article/281651079478035

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