Ghana Post to revamp local parcel services

Today, October 9, marks the World Post Day and as a global player, Ghana is joining hands with other countries around the world to celebrate the day.

The day has been marked since 1969. It is held to mark the anniversary of the creation of the Universal Postal Union. The union was established to create and maintain a postal system for the free flow of mail around the world.

It affords member countries the opportunity to review their postal activities with a view to celebrating achievements and set new objectives and strategies for enhanced postal service.

Parcel deliveries

As part of activities to mark the day in Ghana, the Managing Director of the Ghana Post Company Limited, Mr James Kwofie, says the company intends to revive postal services in the country by revamping its domestic parcel services.

He said although majority of foreign parcel deliveries are done by the company, many customers are unaware that the company does domestic parcel deliveries as well.

The domestic parcel delivery services, he explained, would help its customers and prospective customers to safely send their items from one part of the country to another.

E-services 

Mr Kwofie also said the company has also introduced an e-commerce service to support the buying and selling companies in the country to freely advertise their products.

He said the e-commerce platform, which will operate like Amazon and the likes, would also open up the Ghanaian markets to non-Ghanaian customers, since the service could be accessed anywhere in the world.

He said to further make the e-commerce platform more convenient for customers, Ghana Post, would actively take part in the service by delivering items that are bought on the platform to its owners.

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Mr Kwofie added that the e-commerce platform would be run for free after its launch this month for the first 12 months, before companies that would be advertising on the platform would be made to pay for their content.

Similarly, he said, Ghana Post is also introducing electronic evaluation system to enable its customers to easily know the amount they are supposed to pay on received parcels, particularly those sent from abroad.

He said the electronic evaluation service would help to clear some of the inconveniences customers go through before taking their parcels from the company.

Mr Kwofie explained further that the service would also help to block some of the leakages in the company's finances, stressing that the service would help to ensure consistency in their pricing system.

He said under the electronic evaluation service, customers could pay for the delivery cost of their parcels online and the item would be delivered to them in their homes.

GPS App

Touching on the successes of the company, Mr Kwofie, said since the company introduced its Ghana Post GPS addressing system on October 18, 2017, over 7.5 million people have used the system to search for locations in the country.

He added that close to one million people have downloaded the app with over 5,000 properties tagged with the digital addressing system.

He said the Ghana Post GPS is gradually gaining acceptance by many people in the country, adding that the company would continue to create awareness about the service and also encourage its usage.

Ghana Post GPS is a ‘home-grown’ location-based system which provides the most effective means of addressing every location.

The Ghana Post GPS App was launched on October 18, 2017, by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to provide accurate data for planning and service delivery for service providers and ultimately, make it easy to identify and find locations, as well as boost emergency service delivery.

The app was designed by Vokacom, a Ghanaian information technology firm, with the National Information Technology Agency (NITA).

Mr Kwofie said over 10,000 items have also been delivered using the digital addressing system, noting that the digital address makes it easier for the company to deliver items to people at their homes.

Successes

He said for the first time since 2012, the company has been able to grow its revenue by 25 per cent which it intends to double in the next four years.

He said as part of strategies to improve its operations, the company has procured 22 new vehicles to ensure efficiency and also embark on additional new routes.

Mr Kwofie noted that the company has also taken full control of its operations which hitherto was in the hands of third parties, stressing that the company remains the leader in the cross-border postal services in the country.

He added that as part of measures to provide effective and efficient postal services in Senior High Schools (SHSs) across the country, the company intends to tag all SHS buildings with digital addresses.

This, he said, would make it easier for the company to directly deliver items to students whilst in school, pointing out that the exercise would cover all schools under the Ghana Education Service (GES).

Mr Kwofie said government also intends to harmonize street naming exercises with the digital addressing system.

History

Historically, Ghana Post commenced business in 1854 as the Post and Telecommunications Department of the Colonial Administration.

Its mission is to provide prompt, efficient, reliable and secure communication and financial services to domestic and foreign customers for profit, with a vision to become a dynamic business-oriented organisation, servicing the need of customers and other stakeholders with passion.