Modern high-tech posing a threat to Ghana Post – MD

The Managing Director of the Ghana Post Company Limited (GPCL), Mr Isaac Adu-Boahen, has noted that the arrival of modern technology when people can communicate from every corner of the country without the use of the company’s facilities is posing a serious threat to the survival of the company, which must be addressed immediately.

He said contrary to what people may be thinking, the company does not see Federal Express (FEDEX), DHL, among other competitors, as posing any threat to the survival of his company than the modern technology where students in tertiary institutions and even secondary schools have easy access to mobile phones to communicate with friends and relations without recourse to letter writing.

“When you go to schools, you would realise that most of the students are having mobile phones to communicate. Any small village, which has telephone facilities you could see a communication centre there. In effect, these people no longer rely on letter writing as a means of communication,” he said.

Adu-Boahen, who was speaking at the annual review conference of his company, which took place in Takoradi last week, said since there is nothing they can do to stop this emerging technology, management has decided to diversify its activities in order to stay in what could be described as a keen competition in the sector.

According to him, it was based on this that management of the company decided to establish partnership with other organisations, like Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GCB), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, State Insurance Company (SIC), among others, to provide agency services on their behalf.

This strategy helped Ghana Post not only in providing additional revenue to support its operations, but also to improve the conditions of service of staff in the face of very low postal rates,” Adu-Buahen said.

Touching on the tampering of mail by some unscrupulous workers, the MD said it is not only in Ghana that such things occur, adding it is a global problem. He, however, gave an assurance that management, in harmony with Universal Postal Union, postal security action group of which Ghana is a member, is working towards strengthening mail security in the mail offices and vans.

The annual review conference was instituted about seven years ago with the objective of ensuring that the company remains focused on its vision of becoming the best postal organisation in Africa. The occasion is used to review the operational, financial, and management performance for the proceeding year and outline strategies for addressing the shortfalls with vision and mission of the company in focus. This year’s review conference was attended by representatives from all departments of the company.