AYV News, September 25, 2023
Deputy Minister of Information and Civic Education, Yusuf Keketorma Sandi has said the Postal Services must undergo major transformation built on a sound postal sector policy.
He was speaking at the opening of a stakeholders’ engagement on the ‘review and development of a postal sector policy’ held at the Atlantic Lumley Hotel.
Minister Sandi said postal reform and sustainable development had been acknowledged as priority objective for the Universal Postal Union since the Bucharest Congress.
He added that the rapid development of new information technology had affected the postal sector in many ways, while information technology had resulted in dwindling letter-based correspondence and postal transactions.
The Deputy Information Minister noted that this had also provided an opportunity for the postal sector to improve on quality and customer service to rationalize costs. He pointed out that in some countries the globalization of trade and economic integration had created a whole new approach to postal services in which the postal sector plays a pivotal role as infrastructure provider for the conduct of business and the world in which manufacturers and customers are often physically separated by large distances.
“In Sierra Leone, the postal sector is almost disappearing and it must undergo a major transformation built on a sound postal sector policy,” he underscored. Deputy Minister Sandi added that the stakeholders meeting would take the country a step further in exploring the huge business potentials and social value of the postal service, saying it also aligned with the Universal Postal Union’s strategy for integrated postal reform and development planned project for least developed countries.
He furthered that the then Ministry of Information and Communications had worked on a bill titled ‘The Postal and Courier Services Bill’ that is currently at the Law Officers Department for finalization and enactment by parliament.
He pledged his Ministry’s commitment to pursuing the bill to enactment which he said would create the enabling legal framework for investment and modernization of the postal services.
Deputy Minister Sandi expressed gratitude to the Universal Postal Union for being a dependable partner of Sierra Leone and also for assigning a consultant to develop a postal sector policy for the country.