BUJUMBURA, October 9th (ABP) – The Minister of Communication, Information Technologies and Media, Mrs. Léocadie Ndacayisaba, released on Sunday, October 8, 2023, a statement in relation to World Post Day, 2023 edition.
In that statement, Minister Ndacayisaba recalled that the whole world celebrates World Post Day on October 9 each year. This important event was established at the Universal Postal Congress in Tokyo in 1969, to mark the anniversary of the founding of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in 1874.
Burundi, as a member country of the UPU, joins the whole world in celebrating this event under the theme chosen for this year “United for trust, collaboration for a secure and connected future”.
The objective of World Post Day is to raise awareness among individuals and businesses of the role of the Post in their daily lives and its contribution to socio-economic development around the world.
According to the minister responsible for communication, Burundi has placed particular emphasis on expanding its postal network by providing each district administration with at least one postal office and currently has a dense network of 146 postal offices, which has contributed significantly to the financial and digital inclusion of the people.
Post offices also serve as essential centers for close-knit, inclusive and connected communities. They provide access to essential communications, commercial, social, financial and digital services and are often the only providers of public services in isolated regions.
During this financial year, she specified, in the sector of postal operations, the Post Office sent 2,958 items abroad while it recorded 1,383 imports. In the financial field, the Post manages a network of 233,495 current accounts and during this year, it granted loans to 28,920 people.
According to Mrs. Ndacayisaba, the success of posts in Burundi as elsewhere, as service providers, is based on the trust acquired from customers. Posts can also leverage this existing relationship based on trust to help fill the void many people find themselves facing: the digital divide.
By connecting their extensive physical network to the digital sphere, Posts are embarking on a massive digital transformation with a view to offering secure online services as part of this 4th industrial revolution.
Burundi as an emerging country by 2040 recommends that the Burundi Post Office have sufficient access to the internet, ensuring that all its offices have access to affordable tools and technologies and the cutting edge to support e-commerce, e-government and online finance services.
In the same line of ideas and in the future, the Burundi Post Office intends to strengthen the confidence already acquired by the establishment of an electronic addressing system to realize the distribution of mail at home, the digitalization of the network of postal boxes, the redefinition of Burundian philately to make the philatelic postage stamp of Burundi very competitive, completion of the partnership with the banking and financial sector through the company BI-Switch, with a view to participating in banking interoperability.
On this World Post Day, the minister in charge of communication recommended that the National Post Office of Burundi collaborate with other countries which have already recorded significant progress in order to get inspired from their success.
She asked the staff of that institution to work with the aim of making the National Post Office more productive and competitive and avoid contributing to its destruction through embezzlement.