•According to Posta chief executive Dan Kagwe, the proceeds from the services will stream to Posta as there is no existing revenue sharing plan with the telecommunication company.
•The take on e-commerce is set to be a possibility for a shift in consumer demands in market as Posta currently holding only 450,000 boxes.
Postal Corporation of Kenya, Posta has kicked off a new innovation set to be a pointer in turning around the public entity's revenues.
The digital post service, Mpost, in partnership with Safaricom is set to leverage on over 40 million mobile users to offer delivery of parcels and postal items, tracking them through the value chain.
This is as a time when traditional mail has declined in the face of emerging technologies and eclipsed demand for written letters transmitted via post, leading to low activity.
Users will pay Sh300 per year.
According to Posta chief executive Dan Kagwe, the proceeds from the services will stream to Posta as there is no existing revenue sharing plan with the telecommunication company.
Mpost service is expected to grow, from the trade of among other goods under the agricultural sector and local as well as global e-commerce market.
“We are opening this to the entire world and creating a reverse that Kenyans now can do business more within themselves. It is a game-changer in the way we do business and engage with the rest of the world,” Kagwe said.
The service has been on the pipeline in the last three and a half years.
The take on e-commerce is set to be a possibility for a shift in consumer demands in the market as Posta currently holding only 450,000 boxes.
The number of letters sent locally through Posta declined by 24 per cent to 9.9 million as at June 20I9, while the number of courier items exchanged during the same quarter went up almost a similar margin of 23.7 per cent.
According to Communications Authority' data, in the same period, incoming international letters increased by seven per cent to 2.7 million while outgoing international letters stood at 1.3 million, representing a 0.2 per cent decrease from the previous quarter.
The investment looks to address numerous challenges faced by Kenyans around postal services and logistics.
More than 4,000 driving licenses are returned every two months due to the failure of their owners to collect them.
Sharing Postal Boxes has also compromised privacy and confidentiality or leading to mail recipients being unaware when they have due mail. Inconveniences have been caused when recipients change in locations and residence.
The virtual post using phone numbers as the box number will also be available on other telecommunication service providers including Airtime and Telkom.
According to ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru, Mpost fits the country's agenda on digitisation and growth of e-commerce at a low level of about one per cent.
"The approach expected to open new frontiers within the industry and trigger other innovations," Mucheru said.
The partnership is set to see the hiring of over 300 interns to move the operations to mashinani.