12 Oct 2015

Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr Tshenolo Mabeo has implored Batswana to come up with innovative ways to do business with Botswana Post in order for the postal sector to remain relevant in day to day life.

In a statement that was delivered by his permanent secretary, Mr Neil Fitt on his behalf at the World Post Day recently, Mr Mabeo said government had committed a lot of funds into the postal sector with the view to create an enabling environment for Batswana to do business and uplift their lives.

Minister Mabeo said the sector had become innovative, lucrative and savvy as evidenced by the introduction of products and services such as poso card, mobile app, poso online, vehicle registration renewals, Motshidisi funeral scheme and sale of airtime, among others.

“These are some of the activities taking advantage of poso’s presence in almost every corner of the country and I urge you to take advantage,” he said.

Again, he said the ministry was at the forefront of the Poso reform agenda thus urged Batswana, particularly the youth, to find a niche to supply in partnership with Botswana Post through the use of ICT.

The recent ICT pitso, he added discussed ways in which technology could be harnessed to benefit Botswana youth.

Thus, he urged young people to be constructive and come up with business solutions to all aspects of life because government was more than ready to assist.

He said the ministry had strengthened the regulatory framework by an Act of Parliament which had re-defined the mandate of the former Botswana Telecommunications Authority (BTA) and encapsulated it into the Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA) revised mandate.

The minister also revealed that the ministry had rationalised the Postal Services Act of 1989 in an effort to modernise and enable it to leverage on other government strategies.

The merger of Botswana Post (BP), Botswana Couriers and Botswana Savings Bank (BSB) subsidiaries under the Botswana Post and Savings Group Limited company, among others, he said, were some of efforts intended to cultivate an enabling environment for an efficient and profitable delivery of services across communities.

Notwithstanding, Mr Mabeo expressed concern about service delivery etiquette which he said still left a lot to be desired and thus warned the organisation to reform. 

He explained that excellent service delivery cut across all sectors and therefore key to the growth of the organisation.

Further, he challenged the postal sector to interrogate and explore ways that could best assist various economic sectors across the region.

For his part, Botswana Post board chairperson Mr Polokoetsile Motau said his organisation had embarked on a transformation journey in the past few years with the view to ensure that Post remained relevant in the modern communication technology times.

Mr Motau noted that the traditional postal business line of letter post had been greatly affected by faster and more efficient ways of communication despite playing a key role in sending goods and information around the world.

However, he said successful posts had turned challenges into opportunities to establish new market segments, in view of the fact that post needed a faster and more efficient communication medium in order to build a new business value chain. Further, he said Botswana Post had embraced challenges as opportunities for innovation and diversification of business strategy through modern ICT.

Southern District Council deputy chairperson, Mr Aleck Seametso had in his remarks also challenged Botswana Post to extend its footprint to various places across the country where its services were critical to day to day life situations in order for the organisation to remain relevant. Ends