Accra, Aug. 11, GNA - Ghana Post (GP) needs about two million dollars to fully computerized its systems of operation and link all its offices to ensure effective services, Mr Kofi Dua-Adonteng, Managing Director of GP, said on Friday.
He said; "the GP needs the money to be able to modernize and to effectively play its role in the communication industry". Mr Dua-Adonteng said this when Professor Mike Ocquaye, Minister of Communications, paid a working visit to the Headquarters of GP to acquaint himself with operations there.
Mr Dua-Adonteng told the Minister that when the computerization was completed GP would introduce a new service that would enable pensioners to receive their Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) pensions from any post office in the country.
GP has over 300 main post offices in the country, 370 agents, 2,400 workers and continue to provide services like letter and parcel posts, EMS courier services and financial services including money transfers and issuing of commemorative stamps, among other things.
It has been tasked by the Government to provide and issue commemorative stamps for "Ghana at 50" celebrations.
The MD said the GP continued to play its strategic role in the communication sector, which now included the selling of University entrance forms, selling of Registrar Generals' business registration forms at all post offices and also served as bailiffs for the courts. He said the Company had also started providing Internet services at its Ho offices in the Volta Region and Mamprobi Office in Accra, which were being well patronized.
He said such facilities would be extended to all other post offices countrywide.
On challenges facing the Company, Mr Dua-Adonteng, said the new technological order posed a major challenge to GP and that it needed to be financially supported to advance technologically and to enable it to survive.
He said morale of the workers also needed to be raised through adequate emoluments to put in their best.
Prof Ocquaye stressed the importance of GP in the communication industry adding "its postal services are very essential as they serve as centres of education, health and even agriculture, especially at the districts and regional levels".
He said post offices were the cradle of information centres even at the remotest part of the country, which enabled many people, who did not have access to Internet, to communicate with their relations afar. He said there was, therefore, the need to promote such services through education for the public to appreciate the importance of GP.
The Minister said the Government would provide the necessary backbone for the smooth operations of GP and other ICT companies. He said at present, the Government had secured 30 million dollars soft loan from the Chinese Government to kick-start its 70 million dollar estimated project that would provide the basic infrastructure framework for smooth operations of ICT services.