Safaricom is targeting last mile deliveries for its ecommerce business. The biggest telecoms operator in Kenya has just started a digital postal service that will use mobile phone numbers like the traditional post office box addresses, it said on Friday.
“At the touch of a button, MPost provides anyone in the country with a virtual post office box and can easily receive parcels and letters,” Joe Mucheru, the minister for information and communication, said at the launch of the service.
Here Is All You Need To Know
- Dubbed MPost, the service will be offered jointly with the Postal Corporation of Kenya, which will rent out physical post office boxes to Safaricom customers using their mobile phone numbers, at a quarter of the going rate for conventional boxes.
- Customers who opt to have their parcels delivered to their doors will have to pay extra, Safaricom said.
- Users will be notified though a short message that their mail has arrived, allowing them go pick it up from the counter, Safaricom and the Postal Corporation said.
“Kenya’s economy is increasingly digitising, leading to the growth of online delivery of goods and services,” said Safaricom acting CEO Michael Joseph during the launch of MPost.
Read also: Jumia Deploys Post Offices For Last Mile Deliveries In Kenya
Safaricom And the eCommerce Business
- Safaricom, which also counts Britain’s Vodafone and the Kenyan government as key shareholders, has evolved into a platform company, offering mobile financial services via M-Pesa as well other services.
- Its attempt to break into the growing e-commerce business, which is dominated by companies such as Jumia Technologies , has, however, been more slow than expected.
- Its e-commerce platform, Masoko, which was launched in 2017 needed further investments and a potential relaunch, Safaricom said earlier this year, without elaborating.
- Safaricom’s more than 30 million users will access services from 625 postal outlets across the country, said Post Master General Dan Kagwe, adding that the postal service was adapting to meet customer demand in the digital world.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world