The World Bank has financed a study of the Mozambican postal sector, the preliminary results of which are currently being debated in Maputo by post office officials and other interested parties.
The study cost 300,000 dollars, and was undertaken by the New Zealand-based company, Transend Worldwide. The intention is to point a path out of the current critical situation of the Mozambican post office, characterised by a shortage of money and equipment, and delays in paying wages. Last year, the Ministry of Transport and Communications appointed a new board of directors with the aim of reshaping the post office, and overcoming serious problems resulting from years of mismanagement.
It therefore came as no surprise that the study revealed a lack of a postal policy, lack of any marketing activity, and severe management shortcomings. The new chairman of the board, Benjamim Pequenino, said on Wednesday that he wants palpable results from the study - he expected it to give recommendations for how the post office can escape from its current crisis, and state how much it would cost to implement these recommendations.
Pequenino said he was well aware of the need to change the image of the post office, to win clients, and to compete on the market. But this could not be done without money.
"I hope that the study will present solutions on how to win market share", he said, "on how, for instance, to compete with the courier company DHL, which has light planes to distribute packages, which has an excellent service delivering to the door - while we don't even have vehicles in all of Mozambique's provinces".
The Post Office board has asked the government for 600,000 US dollars so that it could at least buy a few vehicles and finance other small scale activities. But so far even this relatively small sum has not been forthcoming.
Fonte: AIM
