MD’S MESSAGE ON WORLD POST DAY 2021
Today Uganda joins the rest of the world to celebrate world post day. The purpose of World Post Day is to bring awareness to the Post’s role in the everyday lives of people and businesses, as well as its contribution to global social and economic development. The theme for this year’s world Post Day is ‘’innovate to recover’’.
Since 2020, the postal sector has faced a lot of challenges as most postal operations have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 not only halted much of the international postal sector for significant periods, it also undermined business strategies and plans. Against this background, the sector was forced to become creative and develop new ideas and methods to serve customers.
Therefore, as postal operators we owe a debt of gratitude to a small band of individuals whose creativity and innovation is helping the world to escape the clutches of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their triumph in achieving this medical breakthrough has led to fresh hope of preventing infections, and thus containing the spread of the virus and hopefully it will lead to a better future. The story of how this innovation promoted life-changing solutions is one that global business in general, and the international postal sector in particular, can emulate.
New social and economic postal services have sprung up, creative ways of delivering mail have emerged, and e-commerce has prospered in many parts of the world. This agile approach to service and business also offers hope for the future of the postal sector. Time and again, Posts have proven their capacity to rise to any occasion and continue to offer services with remarkable levels of resilience. It is this innovativeness of Posts, and their resilience in serving communities, that we are celebrating on the occasion of World Post Day.
Post Office has proved a vital essential service during the Covid-19 pandemic. I want to say thank you to all our staff who have been working tirelessly to keep the entire Posta Uganda network open and trading. Also, thank you to our customers who have continued to use our services and abide by the Standard Operating Procedures issued by the Ministry of Health.
With the increased uptake of COVID-19 Vaccines, our customers should start to feel a greater degree of confidence in coming back to the high street to support our Post Offices across the country.
In order to bring financial services closer to our clients and the entire country in this period of Covid-19, Posta Uganda has partnered with EUROGIRO to offer remittance services through the EUROGIRO FINANCIAL SUPERMARKET. In this financial supermarket, Posta Uganda will offer services like, mobile money transfers, agency banking and international money transfers. our clients can now easily receive money from their friends and relatives abroad through this postal service
The post has also in the recent passed took a digitization journey that has greatly helped citizens access postal services easily during the lockdown period. Posta’s digital platform www.eposta.ug has revolutionized postal services in Uganda by having all postal services online. Ugandans can now access postal services from the comfort of their homes. Through this digital platform, Posta Uganda can also offer door to door services to our client’s country wide.
Posta Uganda has embarked on partnerships that will soon enable us make Post office, a supermarket of all Government services. Citizens will be able to receive their passports, National IDs, Driver’s licenses and URSB documents all through the post office near them countrywide. This we believe will give meaning to postal addresses as it is clear that an address is an integral part of anyone’s life.
Through ePosta, we have created Digital Addresses at a discounted rate of UGX 20,000 annually for individual clients, this is meant to encourage citizens to acquire postal addresses and enjoy the many benefits that come along. The system allows users to track their parcels and mails, have real-time notifications, request for delivery among others.
Together, let us learn the lessons arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, and understand that innovation is not an accessory; it is the driving force behind recovery, and what makes this sector crucial to billions of people.
I wish you successful World Post Day celebrations.