Mr Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Communication, has urged operators in the postal and courier services to adopt innovative ways and deploy Information Communication Technology (ICT) to help augment their business activities.

He said the operators had no reason to declare themselves unprofitable because there were lots of avenues that they could take advantage of to make their businesses more profitable and viable.

Mr Iddrisu was speaking at a day’s workshop organised in Accra to review draft regulations for the Postal Sector and provide a platform for all stakeholders to understand the draft regulations and how they would impact the postal sector.

The workshop under the auspices of the Ministry and the Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission (PCSRC), is also aimed at giving the operators opportunity to discuss operational matters with the Consultants and the Commission.

The Sector Minister said, the objectives of the National Postal Policy was aimed at complete market liberalisation, generating increased business volumes, revenues, mail security, and improved quality of service and establishing a fully functional postal regulator with expertise and capacity to transform the industry.

“As partners in development to enhance and enrich the regulations that govern the Postal Industry, your valuable inputs and comments are critical for its completion and implementation. The Regulations would create the conditions for the growth of competition and pave the way for new entrants into the sector,” he said.

Mr Iddrisu said postal services continue to evolve and that evolution was being shaped by changes in the communications sector.

“While it is true that the use of e-mails had increased in recent years and that letter mail is declining, businesses are re-organising bulk mail deliveries, letters and parcels as an exceptionally effective medium for forging and strengthening commercial relationships. In short, mail continues to have a bright future as a key communication channel,” he added.

He therefore urged the Commission to check the activities of unlicensed and unregulated courier service operators to ensure that, they were not allowed to operate within the system.

Osabarima Ansah Sasraku III, Chairman of PCSRC, said postal services had been playing important social and economic roles ever since the formation of national governments.

He said, postal services had undergone series of structural reforms in line with different cultural, economic and technological factors, particularly in recent years, with the stepped-up pace of change.

“Just as in the past, many were predicting the down fall of postal service with the invention of the telegraph and telephone, this same prophecy had been repeated for a number of years now.

“However, in the same way the postal service confronted that emerging threat by incorporating the new breakthrough of that time into their own operations by offering new services to the public, the current threat posed by the development of new technology is being turned into an opportunity for postal operators,” he said.

Osabarima Sasraku said "today’s new digital infrastructure provide a foundation for the operation of different types of services, including both existing and completely new services such as e-post, logistics services, messaging and financial services".

He said that, postal services penetrated all social strata and segments of society and one of the conditions for the success of a reform programme in the sector was the broadest possible involvement of all affected stakeholders.

Mr Samuel Instiaba, Executive Secretary of PCSRC, said a similar exercise was conducted by the Commission in 2008 to transform the sector and that had brought unlicensed operators on board and directed their attention to customer care service which invariably increased their revenue.**