LUSAKA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Zambia joined the rest of Africa in commemorating the Pan African Postal Day on Wednesday with a challenge to players in the sector to embrace technology and innovation to improve efficiency and service delivery.
While acknowledging the potential of the sector to contribute immensely to the country's development, Margaret Mudenda, the director-general of the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA), the country's communication technology regulator, said investing in technology will enhance service delivery of postal services.
"As we commemorate the 37th anniversary, allow me to appeal to all the players in the sector to utilize technology and venture into innovative ways of doing their business. It should not be business as usual," she said.
She further added that the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) were a backbone of a vibrant postal sector anchored on e-commerce, which could contribute to rapid social and economic development.
The theme for this year's commemoration is "The Post: An Essential Infrastructure for the Development of E-commerce in Africa".
Younouss Djibrine, the secretary-general of the Pan African Union (PAPU), said the theme was in line with the top priorities for development of posts identified by all regions of the world during their respective strategic conferences.
PAPU is a specialized agency of the African Union (AU) responsible for development of postal services in Africa.
He added that through the theme, the postal fraternity was conveying a strong message that it was committed to further developing and putting its extensive global network at the disposal of governments, customers, businesses and other stakeholders to spur growth.
The theme resonated very well with the new vision for the postal sector known as "Vision 2020" which was helped on three pillars of Innovation, Integration and Inclusion, he added.
