By Adiga Julius
Posta Uganda has moved to digitalize postal addressing and mailing, making access to its services much easier. The new digital system facilitates digitalized postal services including the application for post office boxes, online.
In an interaction with the parliamentary committee on Information, Communication Technology and national guidance (ICT) on Tuesday, the Managing Director Posta Uganda Mr. James Arinatwe said clients will also be able to receive notifications about their postal mail arrival through SMS or email, and access mail directly on handheld gadgets without necessarily going to the head office.
He said clients will also order the mail or item to be delivered to their offices, as well as renewing of postal addresses, online.
“What is very clear is that the communication services are changing rapidly because of technology; so the communications services that the Post Office offered in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s were largely hard paper mail,” he said.
He said the mandate of posta Uganda has however not changed but is the mode of delivery of communication services that have changed because of a strong demand for digitization. He, however, said what has not been fully achieved is ‘physical addressing’ to facilitate access to clients’ homes across the country, which the entity is working towards achieving.
He said Posta Uganda is integrating its system with government bodies such National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA), Uganda Registration Service Beaural (URBS), and the immigration department to have Passports and National Identity cards sent or delivered to their clients’ homes.
MPs Buyaga MP Banaba’s Tinkssimire and Kwania MP Tony Ayoo, Maracha east county MP James Acidri welcomed the new system saying it will make work easy. Tinkasimire said the new system will eliminate long queues at head offices since the delivery systems will notify clients on received mail or items on their phones
“I think the presentation on innovation is quite a good one, it’s in the right direction especially in respect to bureaucracy, inefficiency, corruption and all sorts of vices” James Acidri Maracha East County MP noted.
He, however, said that Posta Uganda should give a clear plan on how it is going to roll out the digital postal address system to ensure service is felt on the ground since product delivery is going to be the agencies’ key niche.
