PAPU Day: African Countries Urged To Embrace e-commerce For Service Delivery

African countries have been called upon to embrace e-commerce for cross-border service delivery to boost businesses in the continent especially through the region’s postal industry.

The call was made in statements issued by the secretary general of Pan Africa Postal Union (PAPU), Mr Sifundo Chief Moyo, and the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) respectively, on Tuesday, even as PAPU commemorated its Day on Wednesday.

This year’s PAPU Day celebration was titled, ‘the Post: An established promoter of cross-border e-commerce in Africa’, to create awareness on new opportunities in the sector.

Mr Moyo said the theme “speaks to the broader agenda of the digital transformation of the traditional Post into the “Smart Post” built on new technologies for holistic and integrated service delivery”.

“Therefore, informed by the common value proposition of positioning the Post as the preferred promoter of cross-border e-commerce in Africa. All postal players are called upon to use every capacity-building opportunity offered to expose their employees to acquire the skills and knowledge needed to pursue our historical role as pivotal players of inclusive socio-economic development for the benefit of the citizenry of our beloved continent”.

Also, the Deputy Director of International Operations NIPOST, Mr Haobu Zoaka, said the economic impact of the day is to encourage Small and Medium Enterprises, SMEs to strive.

He said “It promotes African Post and its development in the Postal industry.

“The title of this year is African Post as a promoter of cross-border e-commerce. It means harnessing SMEs opportunities in the industry.

“The impact can be imagined when e-commerce is projected, and the Nigeria SMEs market get orders across borders.

“Nigeria postal service will key into the theme and encourage SMEs to strive.

Africa’s Postal Leaders set aside PAPU Day each year to commemorate the establishment of its continental flagship organization on 18th January 1980 and celebrate the African Postal Customer.