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Kenya urges Africa to use vast postal network to deepen financial inclusion

Xinhua, May 8, 2017 Adjust font size:

Kenya on Monday called on African countries to utilize the vast postal network as a platform for deepening financial inclusion on the continent.

Information, Communications and Technology Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru told delegates attending the 36th Ordinary Session of the Pan African Postal Union (PAPU) Administrative Council in Nairobi that the postal networks are better positioned in banking for women, the poor, the less educated and those in the informal economy, who tend to be disadvantaged by other financial institutions.

"Postal networks should be an integral part of discussions in which governments, policy makers and international organizations design strategies for fostering financial inclusion," Mucheru said.

According to the Universal Postal Union's Global Panorama on Postal Financial Inclusion 2016, 2 billion people worldwide are financially excluded, meaning they have no access to financial services.

A GSMA report of February 2016 shows that at the end of 2015, there were almost five times more postal accounts than mobile money accounts, which at the time stood at 411 million worldwide. However, mobile money accounts are growing exponentially when compared with postal accounts.

Mucheru also called for increased adoption of e-commerce on the continent, which he said now holds the key to the region's socio-economic transformation.

"E-commerce offers small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) a unique opportunity to access international markets," he said.

According to the International Trade Center, e-commerce was estimated at over 15 trillion U.S. dollars for annual business-to-business transactions and well over 1 trillion dollars for annual business-to-consumer trade in 2015, Mucheru said.

However, he said, Africa's contribution to the global e-commerce statistics was below 2 percent in 2015.

Mucheru called on African states to take necessary steps to foster the growth of e-commerce.

Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) Chairman Ngene Gituku called on postal regulators across the continent to institute necessary interventions to harness the potential presented by the existing postal infrastructure and the prospects of e-commerce to further develop the postal sector.

The Administrative Council is one of the key decision-making organs of PAPU that meets annually to consider and approve the Union's annual work plan, budgets and review its performance. Enditem