This archive report was first published on 3 December 2019.
December 3, 2019, marked a significant milestone for the Kenya Postal Corporation (PKC) as it launched MPost, a digital postal service in partnership with Safaricom.
The move is aimed at making the process of picking up parcels at the post office more pleasant and exciting, especially for the increasingly nomadic Kenyan population.
Since independence in 1964, the process of picking up parcels at the post office has remained largely unchanged. However, the rise of online shopping in Kenya, pioneered by players such as Safaricom's Masoko, Jumia, and international players like AliExpress and Amazon, has spurred innovation and efficiency in the postal sector.
PKC's partnership with Safaricom to launch MPost may see the complete transformation of the traditional postal office. With online shopping booming in Kenya, PKC is focusing on delivering parcels, but it has no monopoly in this business and its network was originally built for letters.
Since March 2019, when Safaricom partnered with Chinese e-commerce giant AliExpress.com to allow Kenyans shopping on the platform to pay for their parcels using M-PESA, 62 percent of Posta Kenya deliveries are initiated through AliExpress.
The trick is that a shopper doesn't require a physical post office box. For only Ksh 300 bob per year on the MPost App, AliExpress shoppers can register their mobile number to act as their virtual PO Box.
For instance, MPost box numbers will be in the format 'P. O. Box 254XXXXXXXXX' where XXXXXXXXX denotes the customer's mobile phone number.
Mr. Dan Kagwe, the postmaster general, views MPost as a stage for the revitalization of the Kenya Postal Corporation as a hub for e-commerce that will make logistics seamless.
Cabinet Secretary Mr. Joe Mucheru says that MPost fits squarely with Kenya's digital economy blueprint that President Uhuru announced during the Transform Africa Summit 2019 in Kigali, Rwanda.
