By Kassim Ssematimba
On Thursday, hundreds of stakeholders gathered at Kampala Railway Grounds for the inaugural Postal & Courier Services Baraza that was convened by Uganda Communications Commission (UCC).
The gathering comprised of UCC officials, its licensees who basically were representatives of Postal & Courier Services business firms and consumers who in this case were mainly traders operating down town Kampala under the auspices of Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA).
According to UCC Director for Economic Regulation, Content & Consumer Affairs Juliana Muheirwe the Baraza, the first of its kind, was aimed at being a platform to get feedback and ideas from the consumers on how to make Uganda’s Postal & Courier Service system more vibrant and attractive to key actors involved in the trade and commerce eco-system.
UCC sought to use the event as a platform not to only get feedback but to also deepen awareness on the need for the public to strictly deal with only licensed operators while helping the regulator in identifying and isolating those operating illegally. The event organizers believe that a sensitized public can shun illegal operators and thereby putting them on pressure to seek UCC authorization.
Speeches made by both Muheirwe and her boss Nyombi Thembo, the UCC Executive Director, aimed at sensitizing the large gathering of consumers who turned up about the dangers of engaging and entrusting their delivery parcels and packages into the hands of unlicensed illegal postal and courier operators.
The ED referenced on the story of a business lady, who is a hand crafts maker in Masindi, choosing to deliver her package to a customer in Nairobi through an unlicensed illegal courier operator. Something goes awry wrong and the package doesn’t reach the intended destination and the poor crafts maker has nothing to do about it yet her money invested in and hard-earned reputation is all gone.
She loses the money and the client who potentially would have gotten her other buyers through the referral system. “Imagine the damage that does to the entire commerce chain once that Masindi hand crafts maker’s experience is replicated a 1,000 times.” The ED used this to illustrate why the postal & courier services industry is so critical to the development and evolution of commerce in Uganda to be left unregulated.
Vowing to crack the whip, he said: “If you aren’t licensed, you aren’t legal. You are operating illegally and UCC, as the regulator, won’t allow this to continue because this business is too important to be left unregulated. That would be an illegality which UCC can’t allow in this space. It will be killing other people’s businesses. Everybody in this space has to be licensed and compliant with the global best practices that are required in this trade.”
He made reference to DHL, saying they are market leaders not only in Uganda but globally in the courier business largely because they are regulated and compliant with all the best practice requirements. He said that regulatory compliance is core to the courier business and can’t be optional anymore. You are either licensed or not in the business at all, Nyombi Thembo elaborated.
“All important things have to be regulated. We can’t stand unlicensed courier operators because they are a risk to life, property, security and trust which is very important in this business. To allow them is to create a breach in our communications chain as a country. Illegal courier services providers also disrupt fair competition at the expense of the regulated licensees,” asserted the UCC boss.
He also made reference to the type of stuff that is delivered from one place to another through postal and courier service providers including someone in Mbale receiving a scholarship offer letter from Kampala or delivering medicine to one’s ailing mother say from Kampala to Kitgum. Sometimes its letters, stamps, parcels, signed contract documents and other physical things which can’t be delivered through any other means apart from the postal and courier method.
Both the ED and Muheirwe explained that the Baraza was meant to deepen understanding of current and potential consumers of the critical role the postal and courier services play in accelerating trading and commerce activities in the country.
“These are very important players in the economy because they are the connectors and accelerators of e-commerce in any economy. They are also supposed to be guardians of trust and we can’t do without them even when we think the digital world is faster,” Nyombi Thembo explained as he presided over the Baraza’s opening ceremony. There was also an exhibition to enable the different licensed postal and courier services operators publicize themselves and their services to the public.
“This Baraza is a platform to facilitate mindset change as we create deeper understanding of why we need a well-regulated postal and courier service industry as a country.” The ED also explained that in the more developed parts of the world, retail outlets are in decline as packages are increasingly getting delivered through postal and courier services providers who have since evolved into logistical operators of some sort.
The UCC Executive Director made it clear that courier service providers are these days assuming the role of logistical operators everywhere, and this won’t be changing or abetting anytime soon. He called on all stakeholders to realize that regulation and ensuring that only licensed operators thrive is a win-win for everyone.
The government is enabled to arbitrate in case disputes arise, besides fulfilling its tax administration-related function. The government is also able to use regulatory compliance to provide protection and generally a secure operating environment that is safe and secure for the consumers, the licensees and all the other stakeholders too.
Reflecting on the day’s theme (namely Safe Hands & Secure Delivery: Use Licensed Operators), Director Muheirwe observed that there is no way a consumer-centric public organization like UCC can afford being indifferent about the need to effectively regulate the postal and couriers’ industry, which she described as too important to be left unregulated.
The assembled members of the public and potential consumers were advised to always demand for and insist on proof of license before engaging postal and courier services operators. That way, the regulator can count on the active participation and involvement of the public and consumers to deliver a postal & courier service system that is trustworthy, efficient and respectable within Uganda and the region.
Nyombi Thembo called on all stakeholders present to realize that what is being delivered through courier channels is wealth and potential to create even more of the same. Also represented at the event were licensees like Uganda Postal Services Ltd, Bus Operators Association and other courier operators besides students from the different educational institutions.
There was also some element of CSR which was enabled by Uganda Blood Transfusion Services (UBTS) which deployed staff to enable event attendees to donate blood at the Railway Grounds. Muheirwe referred to this saying it had enabled UCC to play its role as a responsible corporate citizen.
The Thursday event was also meant to give a platform for consumers to directly interact with the licensed courier operators and give them direct feedback from their exhibition stalls and tents. The regulator also required consumers and the general public to use the Baraza as a platform to suggest ideas on how the provision of courier services in the country can be improved.
And especially the KACITA delegation (as was led by their Association Chairman Musoke Nagenda) made lots of proposals as will be illustrated in our subsequent coverage based on the exclusive interview we had with Nagenda Musoke. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
