Africa: Once Glorious Postal Services
Written byAlice Backer
Africa 2.0 reflects on the future of African postal services (Fr): “Under other skies, postal companies occupy a choice spot in the rise of electronic commerce … In Africa, most postal services are sluggishly lagging behind. They've been destabilized by new technologies, the loss of monopoly… competition from … DHL, Chronopost … and Western Union for money transfers. We need to react and competently so, to reconquer a glorious past.”
Written byAlice Backer
1 comment
My husband and I go to Ghana once a year and have relatives there. It is so difficult to send things through the mail. Not only do you risk the parcel not arriving, but it is usually opened and things can be stolen. In addition, they charge the recipient to receive it, even though you have already paid in the US. My observation is that they charge based on what they perceive as your ability to pay. Last summer, we witnessed the postal service in Ghana trying to charge a student close to $50 to receive a box of vitamins and prescription drugs (plus energy bars). It took a lot of talking to bring the price down. This kind of thing forces people to use the higher priced services like dhl and fedex. It would tke a reform of government services to change this kind of thing.