Companies

Posta eyes Amazon deal in survival race

The Postal Corporation of Kenya is looking to clinch a deal with US e-commerce giant Amazon, which will see it become their logistics partner in Kenya.

Amazon officials will visit Kenya between October 17-19 to discuss the impending working relationship, with the State firm hopeful that it will ink a deal before the end of the year.

"Amazon is the biggest e-commerce company in the world and they need a footprint in Kenya and in Africa. We want to be their logistics partner in Africa," Dan Kagwe, postmaster-general told the Business Daily.

The impending deal comes as sector regulator Communications Authority of Kenya is rolling out a national addressing system, which will involve the numbering of streets, buildings and homes to boost the local e-commerce industry by easing door-to-door delivery.

The United Nations agency in charge of postal services, Universal Postal Union, is also eyeing a partnership with Kenya to establish a regional e-commerce hub.

In the past, troubled Posta has employed a number of strategies to reinvent itself and create more revenue streams, including piloting a bus passenger service dubbed Posta Liner, which it discontinued.

It also launched stand-alone letterboxes for businesses last year but later scrapped the plan on poor uptake.