Posta: E-commerce will breath life into our business

The Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) is banking on its new clearing and forwarding division and e-commerce services, amid a plan to partner with global tech giants Alibaba and Amazon, to sustain its workforce and boost the struggling firm's earnings.

Speaking after he commissioned Posta's warehouse at the Kenya Ports Authority docks in Mombasa yesterday, PostMaster General Dan Kagwe expressed optimism that the new ventures will increase the State firm's business and bring to an end its loss-making streak.

“Currently we have been able to reduce our loss from Sh3.6 billion in the last three years to only Sh83 million by last year. We hope to steer the organisation to more profits in the coming years because we now want to look further to extend our clearing and logistics business not only to government agencies but even individual business people could use us to import their goods...where we can clear for them,” he said.

Posta is looking to partner with Chinese tech conglomerate Alibaba and US-based Amazon to enable those purchasing goods online to then redirect to the firm for door-to-door deliveries.

“At the post office, we want to optimise the resources which we have. Before, we had our clearing and forwarding licences that we had never used...E-commerce is very important at the moment because a lot of people are currently buying things online. We want, for example, if you buy a phone online...then you pick the post office that will deliver it to you wherever you are. We want to make e-Commerce practical,” he said.

Mr Kagwe noted that the goal at the moment was to improve Posta's financial position and open more job opportunities for Kenyans at the organisation.

“Our target is to turn around PCK as a profitable institution...It will be my accomplishment to see what Kenyans call ailing actually become a profitable organisation that can employ young people who will be ready to work.”