Addressing ZAMPOST’s Liquidity Crisis: A Call for Urgent Action
Date: 26th November 2024
Zambia Postal Services (ZAMPOST), a once-vibrant institution, is facing a deep financial crisis, with employees enduring over five months without pay. This alarming situation reflects on-going systemic mismanagement, outdated business models, and a failure to adapt to the digital age. ZAMPOST is vital to our communication infrastructure and economic development, and its collapse would have far-reaching consequences.
Our Recommendations:
To resolve this crisis and secure ZAMPOST’s future, the people of Kanchibiya Constituency propose the following:
1. Employee Welfare:
The backlog of salaries must be cleared immediately to restore morale, with clear communication on steps being taken to stabilize operations.
2. Leadership Restructuring:
ZAMPOST’s management and board must be overhauled to prioritize accountability and visionary leadership capable of driving meaningful reform.
3. Privatization or PPP Models:
Exploring privatization or public-private partnerships (PPPs) can inject much-needed expertise and financial resources, improving efficiency while maintaining government oversight.
4. Support from IDC:
The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) must step in with a capital injection or restructuring package, as it has done for other state-owned enterprises.
5. Diversification of Revenue:
ZAMPOST must move beyond traditional postal services by investing in e-commerce logistics, mobile banking, and last-mile delivery solutions to meet modern demands.
6. Operational Efficiency:
Digitization and modernization of ZAMPOST’s infrastructure are critical to reducing costs and improving service delivery.
7. Legislative Reform:
The government must review policies and laws to give ZAMPOST the financial flexibility needed to compete in the digital economy.
Conclusion
ZAMPOST’s challenges are significant but not insurmountable. With bold, strategic reforms and collaboration between stakeholders, we can restore this cornerstone of Zambia’s infrastructure to a stable financial footing. The time for action is now.
We call on the government, the IDC, and ZAMPOST management to act urgently for the sake of employees, the Zambian people, and the sustainability of our postal and logistics systems. We are calling for a sense of urgency on this matter from the line Ministry too.
Issued by:
Hon. Sunday Chilufya Chanda
Member of Parliament,
Kanchibiya Constituency
Your brother, former postmaster general contributed to the current crisis due to poor management ethos.
Sunday, the Postal Business is a dying business because of techonology. Aside from lawyers who by law are compelled to send letters, who in this day and age uses “snail mail”. These problems cited are not unique to Zampost, with the courier business that competes more effectly the postal business has no chance of survival. Email is also fading out to social media. What sustainable plan can exist to make the postal business viable. You have seen government investing in a satelite. If delivery of edcational material is being done electronically what hope does the postal business have? As they say….shape up or ship out. With AI some jobs will become redundant overtime. Best advocate that a scheme be created to retool and rettrain people for the digital age. Change is something one can never stop…
True, the post offices provided critical services then and had heavily in building infrastructure. However with developments in technology most of the services they used to have are no longer required. As you said they need to diversify and go into new business systems. With their good infrastructure they can become hubs for technology development, banking, insurance, birth day + cards selling, cyber security and even developed to become technology teaching and advancement centres with investment. The infrastructure is there except getting the right people. In South Africa they have the same problem.
I know of no country where the post office is not in trouble. There’s nothing human-made that’s for ever and ever. The post business has been around for hundreds of years and led creation of the UN’s oldest specialised agency, the UPU or the Universal Postal Union which was actually inherited from the League of Nations. The League of Nations also inherited from a previous association of post offices of all countries to enable one to post a letter in one country and have it delivered to a destination in another. Physical delivery of paper mail is now an unviable business due to technological change. No one owes the post business a future.
Sunday has a valid point. The number of courier companies at intercity terminal is a manifestation of the market for courier services in the country. Don’t compare USA and Europe to zambia in terms of digital communications on online commerce. We have traders transporting dry beans, vinkubala, kapenta etc on public transport buses. It’s not safe nor hygienic. A company like zampost with its nationwide footprint could exploit this gap in transportation of parcels even for marketeers. But parastatals being what they are (no penalties for failure) Everyone from zampost to IDC has their arms folded, and whinnying. Just yesterday a Dickson Jere was complaining of extremely poor service at zambian Airways. This IDC thing is a very bad experiment. It is money down the drain. We just don’t have the discipline and culture to run public institutions and companies.