07 May 2024

Botswana has prioritised e-commerce as part of its Digital Transformation Strategy to support the country grow its digital economy and achieve implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Vision 2036.

BotswanaPost chief executive officer, Mr Cornelius Ramatlhakwane said this  when delivering a key note address during the 3rd UPU Regional Project for Operational Efficiency and e-Commerce Development (ORE3) workshop on Monday in Gaborone.

The national e-commerce strategy, Mr Ramatlhakwane said sought to leverage the country’s full potential for e-commerce, to boost economic growth and socio-economic gains, diversify the economy and raise the country’s competitiveness in the global economy.

As a member of the UPU, he said Botswana had been participating in the ORE project since the project was introduced in 2017.
“By improving End to End reliable delivery performance and by providing consumers with more visibility through Electronic Data Interchange message exchanges and more customer-oriented solutions, we strive to further contribute towards our operational readiness,” he said. He said, through collective participation, key challenges could be identified.

“Together, we can work towards propelling the African postal sector towards a future defined by resilience, innovation and unparalleled service excellence,” said Mr Ramatlhakwane.

Due to the growth in e-commerce transactions and parcels crossing the borders, he said operational efficiency had become a priority action plan for UPU and as a result, the specialised United Nations agency overseeing postal operators had implemented regional cooperation projects to coordinate and improve the quality of service through an integrated postal supply chain approach.

These projects, he said were meant to assist Designated Postal Operators (DPOs), amongst them BotswanaPost, meet operational readiness targets for e-commerce, particularly in focus areas of operational requirements, visibility, data quality, supply chain integration and end-to-end reliability.

Universal Postal Union International Bureau’s, Mr Chokri Ellili explained that the ORE 3 project was a continuation of work done during the previous projects, being the ORE 1 and ORE 2.
The project, which started in 2017, Mr Ellili said was meant to enhance delivery performance of postal networks by modernising operational processes and utilising standardised Information Technology tools and systems that aligned with regulatory, operational and technical requirements.

To continue advancing a common agenda on the project, he said the UPU in coordination with Restricted Unions would continue facilitating capacity building, technical assistance and institutional support for achieving country specific performance and compliance to operational and technical standards.

For her part Communications Regulators’ Association of Southern Africa (CRASA), executive secretary, Ms Bridget Linzie said that CRASA was looking into the possibility of establishing a regional license for courier services.
However, Ms Linzie said the challenges could be many in trying to establish such a license.

“A Regulatory Impact Assessment has already been conducted and further work is being pursued to achieve this. We trust that with postal regulations that can establish technical standards and interoperability requirements for postal digital systems, we can ensure compatibility between the various systems and facilitate data exchange between postal operators and other critical stakeholders in the supply chain,” she said.
Further, she said there was need for regulatory frameworks that addressed cross-border digital services, including international parcel tracking or electronic customs declarations, thus harmonised standards and regulation to facilitate seamless cross border transactions.

High service quality in the postal industry, Ms Linzie said was essential for successful digital transformation, enabling postal operators to enhance consumer experience, improve operational efficiency, innovate, maintain a competitive advantage, as well as adapt to the evolving trends of e-commerce and digital commerce.

She also stressed that it was important for the postal regulations to set standards for service quality and ensure that digital postal services met the minimum quality requirements in terms of reliability, availability and responsiveness.
The five-day workshop covered topics such as implementation of physical postal services, advisory on delivery service enhancement, implementation of tracked delivery service and postal security and certification.

Additionally, the workshop addressed areas that impact the quality of postal services, which among others include, quality of service assessments, quality of service fund, postal security ostal addressing, cyber-security and also provided essential capacity-building and assistance to members in order to elevate service quality as defined within the UPU quality frameworks. ends